Access to Health Records
Updated: June 2021
Health professionals often receive requests from people who wish to view or obtain copies of their own health records or those of others.
Sometimes these requests come directly from the patient and at other times the requests may be from third parties such as solicitors. You may also receive requests for access to the records of deceased patients.
The purpose of this guidance is to set out the circumstances in which health professionals may receive, and respond to, requests for access to health records:
find out what a health record is
get advice on record-keeping
know how to deal with requests about living patients
find out about health records for deceased patients
template consent forms
Access for medical students
There are processes in place, through NHS Connecting for Health, to ensure that students are issued with Smartcards for access to records and systems.