Abstract
The Access to Health Records Act came into force on 1 November 1991. This legislation allows patients access to their written medical records (access to computerised records is covered by separate legislation). Concerns have been expressed about the implications of this Act for staff and patients, particularly in psychiatry. These concerns have included detrimental effects on patients exposed to their notes and the restrictions it could place upon staff in recording speculation or subjective opinion. We report the following findings: staff attitudes to the new legislation including awareness of the Act, evaluation of the Act as useful or detrimental and the Act's implications on clinical practice.
Highlights
We report the following findings: staff attitudes to the new legislation including awareness of the Act, evaluation of the Act as useful or detrimental and the Act's implications on clinical practice
Awareness of the Act All of the sample were aware of the Act's existence; 66% had been told about the Act by their health team, 52% had told at least one patient about the Act and 15% had told more than 10 patients
Attitudes to patients being able to read their psychiatric health records Effects on the records Of the sample, 81% agreed that the Act makes staff think more about what they write, 71% that it makes staff write less speculation in the notes, and 56% that it makes staff write better quality notes
Summary
A 70 item questionnaire was sent to all full-time qualified staff working in the department of psy chiatry in a district general hospital (Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex) (n= 102). The questionnaire was developed following a pilot study with two earlier versions. It is designed to assess staff attitudes to The Access to Health Records Act and includes issues raised both in the Danish literature (Svendsen & Toftegaard, 1989; Andersen & Jorgensen 1989) and English literature (Bernadt et al, 1991; McShane et al, 1992). The questionnaire includes open and closed questions
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