I work in technology governance and data rights. For thirty years my job has been to understand how large organisations hold information, how they decide who gets to see it, and what the law actually requires of them. This guide is that expertise applied to a problem I did not choose.
My mother died in a Scottish hospital. I spent twenty months trying to obtain her records and a straight account of her care. I was passed between departments, asked for documents the law does not require, and told I did not qualify when I did. I learned, slowly and at cost, that families have far more rights than hospitals tend to admit, and that most refusals do not survive contact with the actual legislation.
None of this should have to be learned alone, in grief, while a public body runs down the clock. So I have written down what I worked out. Each guide covers one task in plain words. It is free, and it is built to be used.
The guide lives in its own section. Start here with the full list of guides.
The guides
- Getting the records: request a relative's medical records, what to do when the hospital refuses, request your own data, and where to send it at each Scottish NHS board.
- Making a complaint: which regulator handles what, with step-by-step guides for the GMC, NMC, SSSC, SPSO, ICO and SLCC.
- Your rights and support: your rights as a child of the deceased and free and low-cost help.