Residents in aged care facilities have their own doctors to attend to them, with the doctors’ records often kept at the facility for convenience. Does the facility have any rights to these records?

Health service providers providing a health service to nursing homes, hostels or retirement villages need to comply with the Act regarding the health information they hold, even if it is held on behalf of another health service provider. They have an obligation to ensure compliance with the HPPs regarding good record keeping in areas such as security of health information. It is up to the individual health service provider and the facility concerned to make arrangements that suit them to ensure that their obligations under the Act are met, and this would include what rights the facility has to the records. The client has a right to request access to health information held about them, preferably through the health service provider rather than the facility.  more