Freedom of Information and Requests for Records

Information about yourself, known as ‘personal data’, is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. It is the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) which gives you the right to see the personal information that we hold about you. Requests for personal data, including medical records can be made by contacting the Access to Records Team (see contact details below).

You will not normally be charged for information but you will need to be able to confirm your identity which will need to be verified.

To access your own health records please contact the Access to Health Records Department. If you wish to do this via our form, download the form here. If you are requesting the records of a deceased person, please download the form here.

Please send completed forms via email to ATHR.office@bthft.nhs.uk or post to:

The Access to Health Records Service
St Luke’s Hospital
Little Horton Lane
Bradford
BD5 0NA

Tel: 01274 365885

Access to health records process

Once we receive your request we will contact you for identification.

The Trust will provide your information within 20 working days (this can be extended depending on the complexity of the request) from receipt of your application.

Once you receive the information specified within the original request, we consider the request is satisfied.

Please note:

• the data you have requested could be held in multiple systems
• you will be provided information as it generates from each system
• we are not permitted to manipulate your information to present it in a different way
• your request for information may be delayed due to urgent operational responses to dealing with public health priorities

We remain committed to responding to your request and will respond as soon as we can.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) gives the public a general right of access to all types of recorded non-personal information held by public authorities, including the NHS.

The Act sets out exemptions from that right and places a number of obligations on public authorities. We will deal with all requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act Code of Practice.

You can seek any non-personal recorded information that you think we may hold.

If the information is environmental, we will respond according to the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004.

If the information is your own personal data, then you should make a subject access request under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR), and not under the FOI Act. See above for details on how to access your own personal data.

The FOI Act requires certain information to be supplied before we can respond to your request:

• your real name – we do not have to respond to requests submitted under a pseudonym;
• your address (email addresses are acceptable); and
• a description of the information you wish to obtain;

Comprehensive guidance on submitting effective requests for information is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

However, to frame an effective request for the information please:

Do:

• clearly identify the information you want. Be clear about date ranges or timescales. If it is not clear what you are requesting, we may need to seek further clarification;
• be as specific as possible. If your request is too general, it may be refused on the grounds that replying would exceed the cost limit laid down in the Fees Regulations, which is equivalent to one person working for 18 hours. If this happens, we will ask you to re-submit a narrower, more specific request which could be met within the cost limits and give you advice and assistance to do so;
• ask questions such as “what or “how much as this is much more likely to result in a useful response;
• use straightforward, polite language.

Don’t:

• use open-ended questions such as “why?” We do not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded;
• base your request on assumptions or opinions;
• mix your request with complaints or comments.

Check whether the information you seek is already available. We publish information on this website and you may well find the answer to your question is already here. We have a publication scheme setting out what information we currently release.

If you request information from us that is already published, we will simply refer you to the published source.

In order to access non-personal information under the FOI Act your request must be in writing and can be either posted or emailed to us.

For postal requests, please send to the following address:

Freedom of Information Officer
Trust Headquarters
Bradford Royal Infirmary
Duckworth Lane
Bradford
BD9 6RJ

Email: foi@bthft.nhs.uk

Please write “Freedom of Information” in the subject line.

Anyone, anywhere in the world, can make an FOI request.