DoH confirms position on NHS patient records

Primary care trusts have been issued with an DoH advisory note regarding the ownership of patient records after concerns were raised about the implications of new GOS regulations which came into force on August 1 2008.

Local optometric committees and practice owners (News, August 8) had expressed concerns that clauses in some GOS contracts stated that PCTs had the right to confiscate a practice's records should that practice decide to give up NHS work. Those records would then be handed to another local practice.

At the time, Richard Llewellyn of Turners in Bridgwater, Somerset told Optician after finding a similar clause in his draft contract: 'Surely records represent part of the goodwill of my business as an independent contractor, and are not the property of the PCT to be requisitioned.'