The over-riding consideration in relation to access by a patient to medical records is that the confidentiality of the patient's medical records must be preserved. It has not been the practice to release medical records except for the purpose of legal proceedings or to another doctor for a second medical opinion.
The rights of patients to medical record information held on computers is governed by the Data Protection Act, 1988 and the Data Protection (Access Modification) (Health) Regulations, 1989 made thereunder. These regulations provide that information will be made available to the patient, unless the doctor considers that its release could cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the patient.
Similar criteria would normally be applied in the case of medical records held in manual or non-computerised form.