Information Commissioner's Office

Gloucestershire NHS Primary Care Trust

12 November 2007, Health (NHS)

The complainant submitted a request for documents which formed part of her late father’s medical records and a further request for copies of contemporaneous notes made by members of a panel which reviewed the care provided to her late father. The public authority provided the complainant with some medical records but refused to disclose the panel members’ notes on the basis of section 36. The complainant alleged that the public authority held further documents on her late father’s medical record which had not been disclosed to her and that section 36 had been misapplied. The Commissioner has concluded that all of the medical records held by the Trust which fell within the scope of the complainant’s request have been supplied to her. However, the Commissioner decided that the medical records which were disclosed to the complainant were exempt under section 21 of the Act because they were accessible to the complainant under the Access to Health Records Act. With regard to the panel members’ notes, when the Commissioner contacted the public authority and asked to be provided with a copy of the notes, the public authority informed the Commissioner that they had in fact been destroyed. The Commissioner has investigated this matter and accepts that the notes are no longer held by the Trust. However, without being able to view the notes the Commissioner is unable to make a decision as to whether section 36 was applied correctly at the time of the request.

FOI 1: Not upheld