Accessing health records held by Derbyshire Healthcare
During the COVID emergency, your own health and safety and the health and safety of our staff is important to us. This is why we are needing to focus on secure electronic processes and reducing paper wherever possible.
When asking to access a health record, you are requesting personal information either about yourself or another person who you are representing – this could be a relative, someone you are a carer for, or a friend. These types of request fall under the Data Protection Act, or the Access to Health Records Act for deceased persons. Our process follows the principles of these acts.
Requests for supporting documents for a PIP (Personal Independence Payment) application
If you have been asked to provide supporting documentation for your PIP application, please note that you do not necessarily need to request copies of your health records. In fact, doing so may delay the process.
Requesting a letter from a medical professional, such as your current care team or GP, should be sufficient to fulfil this requirement. The letter should include your current diagnosis and how this affects you on a daily basis.
What types of health records do you hold?
We hold the following types of health records:
- Mental health - Adult and Older Adult (including Learning Disabilities, Eating Disorders, Mother and Baby Perinatal, Improved Access to Psychological Therapies IAPT)
- Drug and Alcohol – Adult and Children (including Child Breakout)
- Child health - Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
- Child health – Specialist Services (including Community Paediatricians, ADHD, Physio and OT, Specialist Nursing)
- Child health - Derby Integrated Family Health Service (including Health Visiting, School Health).
How do I get your application form?
If you are the patient requesting your own records, please choose from one of the following:
- I am the patient and wish to access my own mental health record by completing the application form on-line
- I am the patient and wish to access my own mental health record by printing off an application form, completing it by hand and returning it by post
- I am the patient and wish to access my own mental health record by printing off an application form, completing it on a PC (MS Word) and returning by post
If you are…
- A relative or carer or a friend of a patient in our mental health services
- The parent or guardian of a child using our mental health services
- The parent or guardian of a child using our children’s services
...and you wish to access their records, please contact us using the contact information below. Please provide brief details of your request and we will send you a form to complete, either by post or by email.
If you are the relative, carer or friend of a deceased patient you can complete the online deceased patients health record access request form or download a copy of the request for access to a deceased patients health record form, complete by hand and then forward back you us by post or email (see details below).
Telephone: 01332 389131
Email: dhcft.accesstoahealthrecord@nhs.net
Postal address:
Access to a Health Record
IM&T and Records
Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Kingsway House East
Kingsway site
Derby DE22 3LZ
Please note: We are only able to consider for release NHS documents and not information from Education, Social Services and private healthcare providers.
Response times
The Data Protection Act asks that we should try and respond to requests for access to health records within a month and we always do our best to comply with this. The Act also says that if we are unable to meet a one-month deadline we should write to you at that time giving you more information about the reason for the delay.
Please note we are currently experiencing exceptional circumstances due to COVID-19 which means we are not always able to meet our usual high standards for response within a month. There are significant delays with the retrieval and scanning of historic paper files, and with identifying appropriate health professionals to authorise records for release. We apologise for the inconvenience this causes and thank you in advance for your understanding.
