Accessing Medical Records
Primary Care Support England (PCSE) stores medical records for:
If you are not registered with a GP practice in England and are looking to access your own medical record or if you are acting on behalf of someone else (who is not already registered with a GP practice in England), and wish to access their medical record, you can submit a ‘Subject Access Request’.
If you wish to access a medical record for someone who is deceased, you need to submit an ‘Access to Health Record’ request.
If you are registered with a GP Practice, you'll need to contact the practice to make a request - click the tile below for more information.
Please note: Practices remain legally responsible for copies of records retained on local systems. Where a practice retains a copy (be it paper or electronic) of a deceased patient’s record, they are legally obliged to consider it under AHRA. They may choose to direct applicants to PCSE, but must also be prepared to respond directly if an applicant insists on accessing data retained by the practice.
Guidance from the GMC on the release of information for deceased individuals is available via the Managing and Protecting Patient Information tile below.
