Can anyone advise - Are we able to get medicial records of dead relative?

[fishingfilly]

In a nutshell as dont want to dwell, but a family member has made a terrible accusation about my fil with regards to my mil.

Something that happened probably 55 years ago and caused a long stay in hospital. Both inlaws have now passed.

Would my husband be able to obtain his mother's medical records to check these things out?

Fishingfilly, this is not an answer to your question, but really just to ask what your DH hopes to achieve.

There are things I choose to share with my children about my medical history, my XP medical history and our relationship, and other things which I feel it is not appropriate for them to know on those subjects.

As both of them have died it is not clear what you will achieve. Perhaps your MIL did not want your husband to know and would not appreciate the invasion of privacy which reading her medical records would involve.

Unlikely unless the reason you want to see the records is directly related. Also how long ago did your FIL and/or MIL die? Records are only kept for seven years.

filly, I have a vague inkling of what the accusation might be. If it's what I think it is, I can understand why your DH would want to investigate.

It's a tough one. Most likely he wouldn't be allowed access - to my knowledge this sort of info would not be released to open-up skeleton-filled cupboards. I imagine medical information would only be released to the relevant authorities (i.e. not relatives) as part of evidence supporting a coroner's investigation. When a friend of mine died, his family had a hell of a time getting information out of his GP. I don't think they were successful.

Sadly for your DH it sounds as though he will have to learn to live with the questions.

It's possible that other relatives may be a better source of information than medical records, though. But perhaps this is a far trickier and more sensitive avenue to pursue.

You may not be entitled to the records just to go on a fishing expedition. It seems to be only if you are the personal representative in a will or have a claim arising from the death would you be able to get them:

*Application for deceased person's health records

Question
What are the rights of access to a deceased persons? health records?

Answer
Health records relating to deceased people do not carry a common law duty of confidentiality. However, it is Department of Health and General Medical Council policy that records relating to deceased people should be treated with the same level of confidentiality as those relating to living people. Access to the health records of a deceased person is governed by the Access to Health Records Act 1990. Under this legislation when a patient has died, their personal representative or executor or administrator or anyone having a claim resulting from the death (this could be a relative or another person), has the right to apply for access to the deceased?s health records.
Question
How can a person apply for access to a deceased persons? health records?

Answer
A request for access should be made in writing to the record holder ensuring that it contains sufficient information to enable the correct records to be identified. The request should also give details of the applicant?s right to access the records.
Question
Who is the relevant data controller to apply to?

Answer
For GP records, contact the GP surgery the deceased person attended for advice. When a patient dies their GP records are normally transferred to the local primary care trust: the GP should be able to advise whether records have been transferred and if so, who the appropriate person [normally the record manager] to contact would be.

For hospital records, contact the Record Manager at the hospital(s) the patient attended to determine if the records have been retained or destroyed.

General guidance on Record Management to NHS organisations recommends paper based GP records are retained for a minimum of 10 years and 8 years for hospital records after death.*

Thankyou for your replies....all very sad but he wanted to see if the statements were true and I suppose the only way to find out is to see medical records.

It was such a long time ago possibly GP records wouldnt show the incident or reason for hospitilisation.

No other family members to ask. At the end of the day I have spoken to him about it and he feels very sad about it all...feeling that his df isnt the person perhaps he knew. Ive told him that there is nothing to be done if these statements were substaniated (sp!) and what would change, he loved his df and his dm and that mustnt change, also if his dm wanted him to know then she would of told him.

The family member is grieving for the dm's loss and can not come to terms with it (their words) never quite got on with df and Im guessing this is her way of lashing out.

Like I say all very sad

Your poor DH. Obviously I don't know all the details but it seems to me that the family member who revealed this story has behaved very thoughtlessly. Would have been much better if she had held her tongue until a time when her feelings were less raw.

I hope that with time, though it will possibly take many years, your DH can come to some sort of state of peace with his thoughts and questions about his father.