PHIPA DECISION 187

Under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA), the complainant made several requests to his former psychotherapist for records of his personal health information in unredacted and electronic format. In PHIPA Decision 100, the IPC upheld the psychotherapist’s decision to deny access to the records, in full, under section 52(1)(e)(i) of PHIPA, a discretionary exemption from the right of access in PHIPA that applies where granting access “could reasonably be expected to result in a risk of” certain serious harms. The complainant’s request for reconsideration of PHIPA Decision 100 was denied in PHIPA Decision 113.
Four days after the release of PHIPA Decision 113, and again a few weeks later, the complainant requested the same records from the psychotherapist. In response to the new requests, the psychotherapist again denied access, on the same ground in PHIPA. The complainant complained to the IPC about the psychotherapist’s refusal of access.
In this decision, the adjudicator finds that the common law doctrine of issue estoppel applies in the circumstances. The complainant’s new access requests to the psychotherapist, made only days after the IPC’s decisions dismissing his previous complaint in respect of the same records and on the same issue, were not accompanied by any new information to support a different decision by the psychotherapist. On the facts before her, the adjudicator concludes that the complainant’s current and previous complaints to the IPC concern the same question and the same parties, and that the IPC decisions disposing of this question are final decisions. She also finds there would be no unfairness in exercising her discretion to apply issue estoppel in the circumstances. She declines to conduct a review under PHIPA, and she dismisses the complaint.