This decision addresses a request under the Personal Health Information and Protection of Privacy Act (PHIPA) made to the Queensway Carleton Hospital (the hospital) for the personal health information of a patient, the complainant’s son. The request was for the complainant’s son’s entire file while on a particular ward and correspondence about him exchanged between any and all employees at the hospital. The hospital granted partial access to the information, denying access to portions of the records under both PHIPA and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). The hospital claimed the exemptions at section 52(1)(a) of PHIPA (legal privilege) and sections 13(1) (advice and recommendations) and 21(1) (personal privacy) of FIPPA. In addition to objecting to the denial of access to portions of the records, the complainant took issue with the reasonableness of the hospital’s search for responsive records.
In this decision, the adjudicator partially upholds the hospital’s decision. She finds that section 52(1)(a) of PHIPA applies to the information for which it was claimed. She also finds that some of the information is exempt from disclosure under section 52(1)(f) of PHIPA (flow-through to FIPPA), because section 49(a) of FIPPA (discretion to refuse a requester’s own personal information), read with section 13(1) of FIPPA, applies to some of the information at issue. The adjudicator orders the hospital to provide the non-exempt information to the complainant. She also finds the hospital’s search for records deficient and orders it to conduct an additional search for records.