THE privacy of your personal information such as your medical records is protected by data protection laws and the Freedom of Information Act.
Your doctors and healthcare staff must keep your medical records private for you (in confidence). Other people and organisations cannot get access to your personal information except under exceptional circumstances.
How do I access my medical records in the public healthcare system?
You can access your medical records in the public healthcare system:
• By writing to Health Service Executive (HSE)
• Under data protection laws
• Under the Freedom of Information Act
• On the basis of a contract between the patient and the medical practitioner or hospital
• By discovery, in the course of court proceedings
You are a patient of the public health system if you use a medical card or GP visit card for GP services, or a public or publicly funded hospital.
If you visit your GP as a private patient, attend a private hospital, or are cared for in a private nursing home, you can get access to your medical records under data protection laws, on the basis of your contract with the medical service, or by court order.
You are entitled to find out if there is information about you held on record, to access those records and to have them corrected if they are inaccurate.
This applies to public and private healthcare providers.
Data held must be accurate and up to date. The rules on data protection come under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
How do I access my information using GDPR?
If you want to access your information, write to the relevant health service to make a data access request. You may be asked to provide evidence of your identity.
If you are making an access request to a HSE service send them a HSE Subject Access Request Form, which you can download form the HSE website.
Alternatively, contact your local Citizens Information Centre and they will send you a form.
How to avail of Freedom of Information facility
Your medical records are your personal records.
You have an individual right of access to your personal records held by the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI Act).
Public bodies the FOI Act applies to include the HSE, voluntary hospitals, some health agencies, and GP records.
If you are a medical card holder, you can use FOI to get medical records from records held by your GP.
You cannot use FOI for medical records from a private hospital or from your GP if you visit them as a private patient.
Some public bodies are exempt from Freedom of Information.
How do I access my medical records using Freedom of Information?
If you want to access records under the FOI Act, you should apply to the public body that holds them.
If you have a medical card, the HSE holds the records of medical card holders
If you have a dispute about access to records under the FOI Act, you should contact the Office of the Information Commissioner.
The website is www.oic.ie
Accessing somebody else’s medical records
You can use FOI to access the medical information of your child if you are the parent or guardian, or if you care for a child and they are unable to exercise their rights.
The head of the public body will only grant access to the records if they consider it is in the best interests of your child or person you care for.
How do you access information for someone who has passed?
You can access the medical records of a person who is dead if you are the personal representative administering the estate of the person who died.
You may also access them
if you are performing some legal function related to the person who died or their estate, or if you are the spouse of the deceased (including a divorced spouse or cohabitee), next of kin, or another person that the head of the public body considers appropriate.
Is it possible to access medical information for a court case?
You may access medical records for court cases if there is a court order of
discovery.
The court may order a hospital or doctor to disclose or discover documents or medical records to a plaintiff’s advisers if those documents are relevant to the court case.
