The right to access your personal data is a basic right and applies by law regardless of the type of body or entity that is holding your personal data. Accordingly, you have a basic right to access your personal data held by, amongst others, doctors, hospitals or consultants treating you in a private or public capacity. In response to such a request, you should receive anything held on file or computer by the health professional or facility that relates to you or from which you can be identified.

As the Acts only require that a "copy" of information be supplied, a photocopy of an x-ray/scan would amount to a reproduction of the original and so its supply in photocopy form would meet the requirements of Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, a request for a certified copy of an original does not fall with the parameters of data protection law.

The only variation on the requirement to provide access to one’s health data is where in the opinion of the health professional or facility the release to you of some/any the information could potentially be damaging to your physical or mental health. The Data Protection Act 2018 (Access Modification) (Health) Regulations 2022, S.I. No. 121 of 2022 (the Regulations) provides for the lawful restriction by a data controller on the right of access to one’s health data.

But, this restriction applies only to the extent that the restriction is necessary and proportionate and only for as long as necessary to protect the health of the data subject. This generally arises where the data controller has reasonable grounds for believing that granting access to the health data would be likely to cause harm to the physical or mental health of a data subject; where this occurs, the data controller may decide not to provide that individual with access to that data. This restriction applies only to the part of the health data that gives rise to the concern on the part of the data controller.