What should I do with the medical records of a deceased patient?

Under the Health (Retention of Health Information) Regulations 1996, health providers are obliged to hold onto health records for 10 years minimum after the last time they provided care to a patient. These records can be held in a different form from the original records, if preferred. This means documents may be scanned, converted into digital files, and stored, while the hard copy originals are securely disposed of. 

The executor or the administrator of the deceased person’s estate (and the deceased’s parent or guardian, if the deceased was a child under 16) has a legal right to access them, and a health professional can disclose them to near relatives if in line with recognised professional practice and not contrary to any expressed wishes of the deceased.