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<p>There are no plans to change Ministry of Defence policy which is consistent with wider UK practice across the medical profession. There is an ethical obligation to respect a patient’s confidentiality after death and access to deceased patients’ health records, including for Armed Forces personnel, is governed by the Access to Health Records Act 1990.</p><p> </p><p>Under the terms of the Act, someone will only be entitled to access a deceased person’s health records created after 1 November 1991 if they are either a personal representative (the executor or administrator of the deceased person’s estate) or someone who has a claim resulting from the death (this could be a relative or another person). The only exception is if disclosure of medical records created before 1 November 1991 is needed to make intelligible any record created after that date.</p><p> </p> |