Should medical records transfer between GP surgeries ?

The GP evidently has full access to all of my records - they just hide them from patients …..

Medical Records should not be destroyed until several years after your death - BY LAW !

1. Request a formal explanation

Ask the hospital’s Records Manager or Information Governance Lead to confirm:

• Whether the records were lost, misfiled, or destroyed
• When and under what retention policy they were destroyed
• What searches have been conducted
  NHS organisations must make reasonable and proportionate searches for missing records and be transparent if records were lost or destroyed .

2. Submit a Subject Access Request (SAR)

Even if records are destroyed, the organisation must still respond to a SAR and:

• Provide any surviving data from other systems
• Provide metadata (dates of treatment, clinicians involved, referrals, discharge summaries)
• Provide an account of the destruction
  You have a legal right to obtain any personal data still held .

3. Ask for reconstruction of the record

Hospitals can often rebuild partial records from:

• GP records
• Diagnostic systems (radiology, pathology)
• Clinic letters
• Electronic Patient Record (EPR) audit logs
• Correspondence with other departments
  Retention schedules require many of these to be kept for 8 years for adult care records, 11 years for dental records, and longer for children’s records .

Establish whether destruction was lawful

4. Check the retention schedule

Most adult hospital records must be kept 8 years after last treatment; children’s records until age 25 or 26; dental records 11 years.
If your records were destroyed before the minimum retention period, this is a breach of the NHS Records Management Code of Practice .

5. Request the destruction log

Hospitals must document:

• What was destroyed
• When
• Under what authority
• The method of destruction
  NHS guidance states that records must never be automatically destroyed and decisions must be documented .

Escalation routes if the hospital cannot account for the records

6. Raise a formal complaint with the Trust

Ask for:

• A full investigation
• A timeline of events
• Evidence of compliance with retention policy
• Confirmation of searches conducted

7. Complain to the ICO

The Information Commissioner’s Office expects organisations to:

• Keep records secure
• Protect against loss or accidental destruction
• Be transparent when records are lost or destroyed
  If destruction was premature or unexplained, the ICO may investigate.

8. Consider legal advice

Destroyed records can affect:

• Clinical negligence claims
• Benefits or pension evidence
• Safeguarding or social care matters
  Solicitors can request disclosure, preservation logs, and audit trails.

Additional steps that often help

9. Check GP records

GPs often hold:

• Hospital letters
• Discharge summaries
• Test results
  These can partially reconstruct missing hospital notes.

10. Request records from other departments

Examples:

• Radiology (X-rays, scans)
• Pathology (lab results)
• Physiotherapy
• Occupational therapy
  These systems often store data separately and may still hold your information.