Accessing public and private medical records in Ireland

[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!

You're right, OP - medical records aren't centralised in Ireland, so you'll need to request them from each facility separately. Being public or private doesn't matter in this context. Your GP will have computerised notes (although, depending on how old you are, the ones from your childhood/early adulthood may be scrawled illegibly on index cards); hospital notes are likely to be in paper charts and will need to be photocopied. It might take a while for everything to be gathered together and given to you, but it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for answering,

Yes that seems to be the case unfortunately, it’s a pity it isn’t centralised.

I’m in my mid 20’s so hopefully the majority of the notes would be typed or in a more modern form!