Trust's delay in providing medical records caused stress and anxiety

What happened

In summer 2011 Mr M contacted the Trust to request a copy of his 2004 echocardiogram (sound waves used to build up a detailed picture of the heart). He wanted to give it to his doctor so he could compare the results with a more recent echocardiogram he had done. This would allow the doctor to provide a view on any deterioration or improvement in Mr M's condition.

Due to the changes in the technology used to archive its medical records, the Trust initially advised that it could not provide a copy of the scan images. The Trust advised Mr M that in such circumstances it would issue the reports that accompanied the scans, which it said would be sufficient for the purpose he intended. Mr M disputed the Trust's explanation and again requested a copy of the scan images.

After a lengthy period of further discussion between the Trust and Mr M, and an additional formal complaint, the Trust agreed to obtain a copy of the scan images from its archive and send it to him. However, the difficulty in obtaining the images, caused by the old technology at the time of archiving meant that he experienced almost a three–year delay from his initial request of summer 2011, to when he actually received a copy of the scans in spring 2014. The situation caused him inconvenience, anxiety and stress.

Mr M brought the complaint to us because the Trust declined his request for a consolatory payment and he wanted it to acknowledge that the system it had in place to manage its archived medical records at the time was inadequate.

What we found

We partly upheld Mr M's complaint. From the complaints documents provided by the Trust it was clear that the decision not to provide the copy of the scan images was due to the difficulty and expense of retrieving the data from its previous records management system.

However, Mr M had a right to request the information held by the Trust in his medical records and it was not his fault that the Trust had stored this data in a way that was difficult and costly to access. Although we considered that the report of the scan contained relevant information, a copy of the scan itself was what Mr M requested. We therefore found that the initial decision not to take the necessary steps to give Mr M a copy of the scan from 2004 was unreasonable.

We concluded that the length of time taken to provide Mr M with a copy of his scan was indeed excessive and had caused him anxiety and stress.

We found that the Trust did not adhere to the Department of Health guidance when migrating from its previous records archiving system to the updated record management system in 2009. This was clearly evident in the difficulty the Trust experienced while retrieving the data Mr M requested. However, we were satisfied that as a result of his experience, the Trust purchased the equipment used to retrieve the data stored on the previous records archiving system. The Trust would be able to comply with any future requests for data in a more reasonable timescale than that experienced by Mr M.

Putting it right

The Trust gave Mr M a consolatory payment of £200 to address the delay in providing a copy of the scans.