Accessing medical records from public and private healthcare providers in ROI

[CanIHaveChocolatePlease]

Hi everyone, hopefully it’s okay to post this here!

Apart from having diagnosed autism, I also have some mental health difficulties (mainly OCD and anxiety, after requesting a referral from my GP to my local Mental Health team) and am due to have an ADHD assessment soon.

Aside from just being curious about what‘s in my medical records, I have decided that I would like to try and get copies of my medical records, so that I can have a full insight into my records to prepare myself for the ADHD assessment, as I know that will delve into a lot of my background etc.

I’ve been Googling to try and see how I go about getting these, it doesn’t seem very clear (it seems to be different types of application forms depending on your medical status etc) was just wondering would anybody on here have done similar before and if so, would they have any advice?

Although I am currently under my local HSE / public Mental Health Team (in North Tipperary) and seemingly also under my nearest HSE Adult ADHD Clinic, (in Limerick) - both after year long waiting lists - I don’t have a medical card so am deemed to be a private patient for GP and pharmacy services (also in North Tipperary).

So it from Googling it, it looks like that I will have to submit two separate medical record requests (one to the HSE for the public Mental Health team service, and then a different one for my private GP), so am getting confused with it all, and would really appreciate people’s advice!

I got my medical records from the rotunda hospital when we moved from Dublin. The service you used should have a contact Freedom of Information form on their website for you to fill out and probably proof of address. I did that and received an email to say they're working on it and a few weeks later I got it in the post.

From my experience whatever letters they send you is usually copied to your GP but I could be wrong.

I have just called my GP and asked for them.

Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately neither the GP or the Mental Health Team seem to have publicly accessible email address or websites (I’ve looked into that before as I hate talking on the phone and going into places in person, so email would have been my preferred option), so unfortunately it looks like I’ll have to either ring them or go in in person to both of them.

Bar appointment letters, I have never been given any letters or feedback etc from either provider, so that’s why I’m keen to get this info so I can understand myself and any diagnosis that they have for me etc (I literally had to ask at one appointment what diagnoses I had, as I hadn’t been told, so was verbally told on that occasion but still have never received any written info about myself).