Health Information Act 2026

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Access to Electronic Health Records

13. (1) Subject to this Act and any regulations under section 16 , the Executive shall provide access to all or a part of an Electronic Health Record to—

(a) the patient in respect of whom the Electronic Health Record was assigned,

(b) an appropriate person,

(c) a health services provider for the purpose of the current or ongoing treatment of a patient, and

(d) an employee or agent of the Executive whilst he or she is undertaking necessary development, maintenance, management, auditing, or verification activities on behalf of the Executive.

(2) The following persons (each of whom is, in this Act, referred to as an “appropriate person”) may, subject to and in accordance with regulations under section 16 , act on behalf of a patient in relation to the patient’s Electronic Health Record—

(a) a person or persons authorised by the patient,

(b) where the patient is a child, a parent or guardian of the patient,

(c) a specified patient representative,

(d) any additional class or classes of persons as may be prescribed by regulations under section 16 .

(3) The Executive shall provide appropriate measures to permit a patient to request rectification of information contained in his or her Electronic Health Record and shall, where appropriate, validate the accuracy of information provided by the patient in his or her request with a relevant health practitioner.

(4) A health services provider may restrict access by a patient or an appropriate person to information contained in an Electronic Health Record where the health services provider has reasonable grounds for believing that such access would be likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of the patient concerned.

(5) A restriction under subsection (4) shall be applied by the health services provider concerned only to the extent that is necessary and proportionate to protect the health of the patient, and only for so long as necessary and proportionate to protect the health of the patient.

(6) Nothing in this section shall operate to prevent a health services provider from granting access to a patient to so much of the information sought in relation to his or her Electronic Health Record as may be granted without causing serious harm to the physical or mental health of the patient concerned.

(7) Subject to subsection (8), the Executive shall—

(a) in creating for, and assigning to, each patient an Electronic Health Record, and

(b) in providing access to Electronic Health Records in accordance with this Act,

adopt such technical, physical, organisational and governance safeguards as the Executive considers necessary to provide the required high level of security and protection against unauthorised, unlogged or inappropriate access to the information contained in an Electronic Health Record.

(8) The Executive shall consult with the Data Protection Commission on the specific safeguards it proposes to adopt in accordance with subsection (7).

(9) This section is without prejudice to the exercise of any right of access of a data subject provided for in Article 15 of the Data Protection Regulation or of a person under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 .

(10) In this section—

“Act of 2015” means the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 ;

“adult” means a person who has attained the age of 18 years;

“decision-making representative” has the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Act of 2015;

“decision-making representation order” has the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Act of 2015;

“specified patient representative”, in relation to an adult patient who lacks capacity, means any of the following:

(a) a decision-making representative where the terms of the decision-making representation order made in that regard under section 38(2)(b) of the Act of 2015 confers functions on the representative concerned in respect of the matter;

(b) in the case of a ward of court, the committee of the ward of court;

(c) any other person duly appointed in that behalf by the High Court.