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Are psychiatric case-notes offensive?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul Crichton
Affiliation:
Queen Mary's University Hospital, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PN
Athanassios Douzenis
Affiliation:
Gordon Hospital, Bloomburg Street, London SW1V 2RH
Claire Leggatt
Affiliation:
Social Worker, Gordon Hospital, Bloomburg Street, London SW1V 2RH
Timothy Hughes
Affiliation:
West Middlesex University Hospital, Isleworth TW7 6AF
Shôn Lewis
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, St Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP
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During the last decade there have been a number of legislative changes establishing and extending the rights of patients to have access to their own medical and social service records. The Data Protection Act 1984, as modified by the Subject Access Modification Order 1987, gave patients access to computerised medical records with certain restrictions, in particular for information thought to be harmful to patients. The Access to Personal Files Act of 1987 granted access to Social Services Records. Again there were restrictions, e.g. to protect clients from serious harm or to protect confidential staff judgements. Finally, the Access to Health Records Act of 1990, which took effect on 1 November 1991 gives patients access to their own medical records and enables them to correct inaccuracies which they may find. Information likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the patient or of any other individual who could be identified can be withheld.

Type
Original articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992

References

Royal College of Psychiatrists (1992) Access to Health Records Act 1990. College guidance. Psychiatric Bulletin, 16, 114123.Google Scholar
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