Patients forced to wait months or even years for medical records, despite legal right to access 

Legally, authorities are supposed to provide records within one month. In practice it can be a year or more

‘Properly resourcing medical records departments is itself an essential part of patient care,’ Aideen McGarry points out. File picture 

A recent news report that almost 100,000 people requested copies of their medical records from the HSE last year — amid continuing delays and the absence of a fully functioning national electronic health record system — should concern every patient in Ireland. The story, highlighted by RTÉ, exposed not only the scale of public demand for access to personal healthcare information, but also the growing pressure on an already overstretched system struggling to respond in time.

For many patients, these delays are frustrating. For others, they can be life-altering.