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Archiver > UK-WORKHOUSE-HOSP > 2004-11 > 1101491998


From: "MaryH" <>
Subject: Re: [UK-W&H] Afternoon everyone,
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 17:59:58 -0000
References: <013c01c4c98d$1745f950$1301a8c0@Toshiba> <00ee01c4c998$be9d5350$68422552@cassy> <004601c4d314$778ecb30$7bd3403e@WOODY> <005a01c4d3d4$551c1dd0$1301a8c0@Toshiba>


> Therer appears to be different information on some sort of records, the
> hospital says that after 25 years they destroy records (which i found hard
> to believe) and apparently there is no data protection on people who have
> died, all confussing hey.

It depends on where the records are. If they are in an archive such as a
record office, then medical (and some other records) will be closed for 100
years. It is quite likely that hospitals today simply destroy records once
they are over 25 years old rather than depositing them with a record office
or maintaining an archive of their own. It is just such actions that leads
to the loss of potentially valuable records, but then we can't keep
everything!

Data Protection is a slightly different thing. The Data Protection Act
exists to protect individuals from having information about themselves made
generally available without their consent. Everyone who keeps records on
people must comply (in the UK at least) with the Data Protection Act which
requires you to keep your data secure and to respect the privacy of the
individuals you are recording. By definition, once someone is dead, they are
not around to complain if data about them is published.

Hope that helps.
Mary

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