RETAINING AND TRANSFERRING

Generally speaking, physicians must always keep the
original medical record themselves. Only copies of the
record should be transferred to others.

Retaining Medical Records
Regulation requires that physicians keep medical
records for a certain period of time. For adult
patients, the rule is that records must be retained for
10 years from the date of the last entry in the record.
For patients who are children, the regulation requires
that the physician keep the record until 10 years after
the day on which the patient reached or would have
reached the age of 18 years. However, it is prudent to
maintain records for a minimum of 15 years because,
in accordance with the Limitations Act, some legal
proceedings against physicians can be brought 15
years after the act or omission on which the claim is
based took place.11
Physicians may also be required to retain records
longer than the above time periods when they receive
a request for access to personal health information.
Where such a request has been made, physicians must
retain the personal health information for as long as
necessary to allow for an individual to take any
recourse that is available to them under PHIPA.
The retention rules are different for physicians who
cease to practise medicine, please see below for more
detail. See Appendix A for the applicable regulation.