Records are the foundation of every medical negligence claim, and hospitals know it. Refusal or delay is common, and it is not lawful.
The entitlement
The professional conduct regulations governing registered medical practitioners require that a doctor or hospital furnish documents and medical records to the patient or an authorised attendant or legal authority on request, within a defined period, historically 72 hours. Records of indoor patients must be maintained for a prescribed number of years. Refusal amounts to professional misconduct and is actionable before the State Medical Council.
The regulatory framework has moved from the Medical Council of India to the National Medical Commission, and the applicable regulations have been revised, so cite the entitlement rather than a specific superseded rule number, and confirm the current regulation when making a formal complaint.
What to ask for, specifically
Do not write asking for "my records". List them:
- Admission and discharge summary
- Complete case sheet and daily progress notes
- Nursing notes and vitals charts
- Operation theatre notes, anaesthesia record and OT register entry
- All investigation reports and imaging, with films or digital copies
- Drug and treatment chart, and consumables record
- Signed consent forms
- Referral notes and cross-consultation notes
- The itemised bill
Records are altered, "reconstructed" and lost, and the risk rises the longer you wait. Send a written request with an acknowledgement, keep the dated copy, and if the hospital insists on a fee, pay it and keep the receipt. If they hand over an incomplete set, write back listing exactly what is missing. That correspondence becomes very useful evidence of suppression later.
If they still refuse
- Written complaint to the hospital's medical superintendent.
- Complaint to the State Medical Council for professional misconduct.
- For a government hospital, an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, which is quick and effective.
- Before the consumer commission, apply for a direction to produce the records. Non-production allows the commission to draw an adverse inference, which in practice is often as useful as the records themselves.
After a death
The legal heirs or an authorised attendant are entitled to the records. Hospitals sometimes refuse citing confidentiality; that objection does not hold against the legal representatives of the deceased.