How long do medical records have to be kept for?

The Health Information Privacy Code says that health agencies should not keep medical information for any longer than they have a lawful purpose for using that information.

The Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996 say that health agencies must keep any health records they hold for a patient for 10 years from the last time they provided services to that patient.

However, this requirement doesn’t apply if the health agency has transferred the files to a new healthcare provider or if they have given the complete file to the patient (or, if the patient has died, to the patient’s executor).

The Public Records Act 2005 will also be relevant to public sector health agencies. For example, there is a schedule which sets out how long district health boards have to keep a range of different types of health information for.