Incorrect diagnosis on GP record

Legal position:

You have a legal right under the UK GDPR to ask for inaccurate personal data, including data held in your GP record, to be corrected. This is known as the right to rectification. Health records held by an NHS GP practice count as personal data, so this right applies. The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR give you the mechanism, and NHS Digital and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance explain how it works in practice for health records.

There is an important distinction that affects your case:

1. Factual inaccuracies. If something is simply factually wrong, for example your record shows a diagnosis that was never actually made, or a diagnosis has been entered against the wrong patient, or the entry results from an administrative error, then this is a clear case for correction. The practice should amend it.
2. Clinical opinions. Where an entry records a clinical opinion or diagnosis that a health professional genuinely reached at the time, the position is more difficult. NHS guidance is clear that even if you disagree with a past diagnosis, the practice should not change it if the clinician believes it was a factually accurate record of the professional judgement made at the time. A diagnosis is often treated as a professional opinion rather than a hard fact, and the law does not require an organisation to delete a properly recorded opinion just because the patient disagrees with it. However, you can still ask for it to be corrected, and you can require that your disagreement is recorded alongside the entry.

The key question in your situation is therefore whether the entry is a genuine error, meaning no such diagnosis was ever made, or whether a clinician did record a diagnosis that you now believe was wrong. Your rights and likely outcome differ depending on which of these it is.

What you can ask for:

You can ask the practice to correct or remove the inaccurate entry. If they will not remove it, you can ask them to add a supplementary statement noting that you dispute the diagnosis and explaining why. Even where an organisation agrees the entry was inaccurate, it may sometimes need to retain the original information if decisions were made in reliance on it, but your correction or dispute note should sit alongside it so anyone reading the record sees the full picture.

Practical next steps:

1. Get a full copy of your record. Make a subject access request to your GP practice so you can see exactly what is recorded, who entered it, and when. This is free and the practice normally has one month to respond. Seeing the source of the entry helps you work out whether it is a data error or a recorded clinical opinion.
2. Make a rectification request in writing. Write to the practice, ideally to the practice manager or data protection officer, stating clearly which entry is wrong, why it is inaccurate, and what you want done. Say expressly that you are exercising your right to rectification under the UK GDPR. Keep a copy and note the date.
3. Provide supporting evidence. If you have anything that shows the diagnosis was never made or was made in error, for example letters from specialists, test results, or correspondence from other clinicians, include it. Evidence makes it far more likely the practice will agree to amend.
4. Ask for a supplementary note if they refuse to delete. If the practice maintains the diagnosis was a genuine clinical judgement, ask them in writing to record your disagreement in the notes so future readers are aware the diagnosis is disputed.
5. Timescales. The practice should respond to a rectification request within one month. This can be extended by up to two further months for complex requests, but they must tell you if they are extending and why.

If the practice refuses:

If the practice will not correct the record and you are not satisfied with a supplementary note, you have several routes.

You can use the practice’s formal complaints procedure. If that does not resolve it, you can escalate to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, though the Ombudsman route is generally about the handling of your complaint and NHS service issues rather than compelling a data correction.

For the data accuracy issue specifically, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO can investigate how the practice handled your rectification request. The ICO cannot usually order a clinician to reverse a genuine clinical opinion, but it can act where a practice has wrongly refused to correct a plain factual error or has mishandled the request.

As a last resort you can bring a claim in court under the Data Protection Act 2018 to seek an order requiring rectification, and potentially compensation if you have suffered damage or distress. Court action is slow, costly and carries litigation risk, so it is usually only worth considering where the entry is causing real harm, for example affecting insurance, employment, treatment decisions or other significant consequences, and other routes have failed.

Why this matters and how to prioritise:

The most sensible order is usually to get your records first, then make a clear written rectification request with evidence, then escalate to a formal complaint and the ICO if refused, and only consider court action if the inaccurate diagnosis is causing you genuine practical harm. A wrongly recorded diagnosis can affect future clinical decisions, insurance and other assessments, so it is worth pursuing, but for many people the practical goal is either removal of a plain error or a prominent note recording that the diagnosis is disputed.

Points that could change the answer:

The strength of your position depends heavily on whether the entry is a straightforward mistake or a recorded professional opinion, whether any clinician actually made the diagnosis at all, how the entry is affecting you now, and what supporting evidence you can produce. If you can tell me which of these applies, and what harm the entry is causing, I can be more specific about the best route.

This all applies to England and Wales, which is the jurisdiction you selected, and the underlying data protection rights apply across the UK.