title: The law regarding health records of the deceased in the UK.
abstract: Case Scenario: Following the death in hospital of a patient, John, a dispute has arisen over his will and the allocation of his property. He married twice and had a son from each marriage who have never got on well with each other. In his will he left his terraced house to the son, Bruce, who most frequently visited him at home and in hospital. The other son, Ben, however, feels that Bruce exerted undue influence upon the father and that the property should have been equally divided between the two of them in the absence of any other relatives. He also believes that his father lacked the necessary mental capacity when he made his will and, therefore, the will is also invalid on those grounds. Ben is seeking to access his father's health records to try and establish the mental state of his father at the time he made the will. He has applied to see the records. Will he be able to access them?
authors.affiliation: University of Glamorgan.
authors.forename: Bridgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dimond
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003643:Death; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008499:Medical Records / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010067:Ownership / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D013997:Time Factors; D006113:United Kingdom; D014918:Wills / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence