§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what action he intends to take arising from representations from the British Medical Association that police investigators have seized patients' confidential files.
§ Mr. Wyn RobertsI have been asked to reply.
The Chief Medical Officer of the Welsh Office has received a letter from the British Medical Association informing him of the terms of a resolution passed by the annual conference of representatives of senior hospital medical staffs and asking for information about a report that
thousands of patients' notes have been read by the police at Prince Charles hospital, Merthyr Tydfil".I am informed by the health authority concerned that no patients' records have been seized by the police, that the police have been allowed access to a number of records, where considered justified, principally for the administrative information contained in those records.