> Subject: Re: Archiving data
Trefor Roscoe asks
>
> 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?
>
The DP Act requires that personal data shall not be kept longer than is
necesary for the purposes enumerated in the Registration which allows
the storage/processing of that personal data. It is perfectly
legitimate that for Medical Records, these purposes should include
any or all of
subsequent use for research purposes (for which the Act in any
case makes specific provision)
subsequent use for long-term treatment of a patient who is no
longer registered with the clinician, since there is always a
realistic chance that parts of the present record may be relevant to
a future clinical episode
subsequent use for the unlikely event of a claim for malpractice,
in which the medical record is clearly going to be an important part
of the case.
In other words, I believe that the answer to Trefor's first question is
'YES'; the answer to thesecond is that there is no requirement for
any kind of contractual relationship between the Data Subject and the
Data User. How many of us have a contract with a credit reference
agency?
Mike Wells
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Professor Mike Wells
Department of Physics, The University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
Phone: 0113-233-2339 E-Mail [log in to unmask]
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