Retention of medical records

Chief executives and senior managers of NHS bodies are personally accountable for records management within their organisation

Under the Public Records Act 1958, no public record should be kept for more than 30 years. Chief executives and senior managers of NHS bodies are personally accountable for records management within their organisation, including compliance with the Data Protection Act. Regarding retention of records, they should be following national guidelines set out in the NHS Code of Practice.⁹

Minimum retention periods for various forms of record may vary according to local policies. In the absence of local policies, the following minimum retention periods are suggested:

• Children and young people – until the patient’s 25th birthday, or 26th if the young person was 17 at the conclusion of treatment, or eight years after the patient’s death.
• Maternity records – 25 years after the birth of the last child.
• Mentally disordered patient – 20 years after last treatment or eight years after death.
• Oncology – 30 years. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical oncology documentation should be retained in accordance with the NHS Code of Practice.
• Donor records – 30 years after transplant.
• Other health records – eight years after last treatment or death.

Disposal of records

Clinical records may be transferred to the Public Record Office rather than destroyed, particularly if they are of archival value.

If records are to be destroyed, paper records should be shredded or incinerated. CDs, DVDs, hard disks and other forms of electronic storage should be overwritten with random data or physically destroyed.