Care Home Freedom of Information

karmaqueen40

My Dad has Alzheimers and has recently been evicted from his dementia care home because of dementia symptoms. I have a range of concerns about this and have been advised to make a formal complaint and ask for his care notes under the freedom of information act.
The Care home have responded by sending me a form to complete to request access but are charging £75. I have enduring power of attorney for my Dad ... are they allowed to charge this fee? 
His GP practice have accepted my request and will only charge me if I want any extra copies. 

fatbelly

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/individual-rights/right-of-access/#fee

Malthusian

It's a "Subject Access Request" under the UK General Data Protection Regulation you want to make. And as fatbelly said, they can't charge a fee. Unless your request is "manifestly unfounded or excessive" and nothing in your post suggests it is. Even if his eviction was 100% justified, that would not make the request manifestly unfounded.

As his Attorney you have same the right to make an SAR that he does.

Freedom of Information requests are made to government bodies (and some quasi-governmental bodies) to ask for information of public interest, not personal data. (And they can't usually charge a fee for those either.)

Whoever sent you the form should know this; this is basic, basic stuff and GDPR rights are essential knowledge for anyone working with vulnerable people and medical data. The fact they are trying to rip you off like this is itself cause for concern.

karmaqueen40

Thank you all so much!

Gavin83

I'll ask some follow up questions as I expect you won't get what you want from the SAR anyway.

Has dad already been evicted or is the process still ongoing? What do you hope for as a resolution to this?

You haven't really clarified this but I'm assuming they've stated they no longer have the ability to care for him and you disagree with this. If this is the case has anything changed recently that you feel might have contributed to the eviction? It would be extremely unlikely they'd evict a paying resident without a very good reason as it's extra work and expense for them to replace someone.

Have his needs increased recently?