Health Records of Deceased Clients
Access to Health Records Act 1990Law Society Information
3 November 2006
The NHS is experiencing problems with solicitors requesting the
medical records of deceased patients. The Access to Health
Records Act 1990 imposes a duty on the holder of the deceased
patient's health records to withhold all information which the
patient had previously expected to remain confidential. In such
applications solicitors should therefore give as much information
as possible about the reason for the request to enable the holder
of the records to comply with that duty.