[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Does the data protection act allow you to keep confidential data on patients
> who you are no longer responsible for for an indefinate period? I had thought
> that data could only be held with the permission of the person it was about
> if there was no direct contract between the holder and the subject?
>
> Anyone know the answer to this point?
You need to keep the data until it is no longer required. When we can be sued many
years after the event, and when an event that occurred early on in a patient's life may
have serious implications for their later health, then that data should be kept for a
very long time.
Another issue has been raised, namely what happens if the medical records go missing
subsequent to leaving your practice. One local partnership was successfully sued by our
legal friends when the Post Office lost a patients medical records. We do not let
medical records leave our practice until they have been summarised, and on many
occasions the Health Authority has come back to us for copies of our computer records
to reconstruct the notes.
I know of no evidence that the Data Protection Registrar considers that the prolonged
storage of medical records is not in the best interests of the patients - no
prosecutions, and no suggestions of prosecutions have ever bee raised in the GP press.
On the other hand, there have been very public criticisms (and even prosecutions) of
companies who have committed relatively minor (in some cases) offences. Perhaps we
should ask them direct - I think they are somewhere on the Net/WWW.
So, until the Data Protection Registrar gives us very clear gudelines, which are
confirmed by the MDU/MPS, then I for one will be keeping all records on computer.
Laurie Miles
GP, St Helens
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