Hospitals in Ireland are failing in a basic duty to their patients, and it is vital this changes.

Access to one’s own medical records is not a luxury, nor is it an administrative inconvenience to be dealt with when time allows. It is a legal right, a cornerstone of transparency and, in many cases, the first step towards accountability when something has gone wrong.

Having trained and practised as a medical negligence solicitor in England and Wales for eight years, I recently returned home to Ireland to continue my work. I have been struck by the fact that patients here who have suffered serious injury face barriers to justice that simply do not exist for their counterparts across the water. One of the most significant lies in the extraordinary difficulty many experience in obtaining their own medical records.

The legal framework governing access to records is, on paper, broadly similar in Ireland and the UK. Under GDPR, requests should generally be fulfilled within one month. In practice, however, the reality is very different.

During my time in London, delays were not uncommon and timeframes varied depending on the hospital or GP practice involved. However, records were generally received within a matter of months. Persistent failures to respond were the exception rather than the rule, and formal complaints were, in my experience at least, extremely rare.

In Ireland, the experience is markedly different. Delays of six to twelve months are described by practitioners as routine. Requests disappear into a void of unanswered emails and unreturned phone calls. 

Solicitors acting on behalf of patients are frequently left with little option but to escalate matters to the Data Protection Commission — the body tasked with upholding patients’ rights under GDPR.

Consequences of delays 

I asked colleagues to share examples of how these delays are affecting their clients. The responses were stark.

One client, a 36-year-old mother of three, sought answers about the care she received during the emergency caesarean section that delivered her third child in January 2024. She was discharged less than two weeks later after experiencing significant post-operative bleeding.

Her condition deteriorated at home and she was readmitted shortly afterwards. It later emerged that a retained placenta had gone undetected, requiring further intervention.

Since then, she has suffered postnatal depression and her recovery remains ongoing. It is alleged that both the surgery and aftercare fell below an acceptable standard, leading to avoidable and lasting complications. Yet when her legal team sought her medical records in February 2025, they did not arrive until a full year later.

Her psychiatric records, crucial to understanding the full impact of her experience, remain outstanding.

Another woman asked us to investigate the care she received during an ectopic pregnancy. Her records were first requested in August 2025. Despite repeated follow-ups, they had still not been provided by March 2026.

A complaint to the Data Protection Commission yielded little reassurance: the response cited significant backlogs and warned that any resolution would take considerable time.

Then there is the case of a child living with cerebral palsy and complex medical needs. His mother sought to understand whether his condition could have been prevented and instructed us to examine the management of her pregnancy, labour, and delivery. Requests for medical records were made in January 2025. Some 14 months later, despite persistent efforts — including formal complaints — those records have still not been released.

Of course, it is important to acknowledge the context in which hospitals operate. Ireland’s public health system is under sustained pressure. Staff are stretched, resources are finite and there are those who will argue that clinical treatment must always take precedence.

However, properly resourcing medical records departments is itself an essential part of patient care.

Accurate, accessible records are critical for continuity of treatment. When a patient moves between hospitals, consultants or GPs, their medical history must follow them.

Without it, clinicians are forced to make decisions with incomplete information, increasing the risk of error and unnecessary duplication of tests or procedures.

In that sense, delays in accessing records are not merely administrative inconveniences — they have direct implications for patient safety.

There is also a broader systemic benefit. When something goes wrong in a patient’s care, early access to records allows concerns to be identified and addressed promptly. Lessons can be learned, practices improved, and the risk of similar incidents reduced.

Delayed access, by contrast, allows potential problems to linger unexamined.

There is also a fundamental principle at stake: patients have a right to know what has happened to them. Access to healthcare information allows people to understand their condition, assess their treatment and, where necessary, challenge errors. For many — particularly those who suspect they or a loved one may have been the victim of medical negligence — access to records is the crucial first step in seeking clarity and accountability.

Without those records, a patient cannot meaningfully commence a legal action, and time matters greatly.

In Ireland, a patient generally has two years in which to bring a medical negligence claim — shorter than the three years allowed in England and Wales.

Every month spent waiting for records is a month lost from that already limited window. The current situation is therefore affecting patients’ constitutional right of access to the courts.

Some may question whether these delays serve a more strategic purpose. It would be easy to assume so. But the more likely explanation is simpler, and no less troubling: staff in medical records departments are overwhelmed, under-resourced and left to manage an impossible volume of requests.

The result is the same. Patients are left waiting — often during periods of immense distress — for information that is rightfully theirs.

Pursuing a medical negligence claim already requires resilience and resolve. Faced with months of silence, some patients will inevitably give up. Not because their questions have been answered, but because the system has worn them down.

That should concern us all.

A healthcare system worthy of public trust must be transparent and accountable. Ensuring timely access to medical records is a simple, practical and necessary step towards that goal. It is not too much to ask.

• Aideen McGarry is a solicitor at Cantillons.