Paying For Medical Records Rare in North

By 250 News

 
Paying for your personal medical records, Dr. Bert Kelly says it would be rare indeed if a patient in the north was asked to pay for a copy of their medical records should their physician retire or close  their practice. 

Dr. Kelly was responding to a Vancouver story in which a Doctor who had retired from practice there had turned over his medical records to an Ontario storage company, and that company was requesting up to $250 dollars to send those records along to former patients.

Dr. Kelly said that in his practice, he came into possession of the previous Doctor's records and will be able to shred those records later this year after they have sat in storage for ten years. "You only need to keep them for seven" he said "but we generally stretch that out to ten."

"When you either buy an existing practice or start a new one it has been accepted that you hold on to the medical records as a part of doing business" says Kelly who adds, "We in this region have abided by that practice." There could have been a few infractions in the past he said but that didn’t happen with the main stream Physicians of the district.  In this area the patient's records have been handed over to the new Doctor taking over the old practice.   

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