How Long Should You Keep Medical Records?

A guide to how long families should keep medical records. What to keep permanently, what to keep for 10 years, and what can safely be discarded.

There are no universal rules about how long personal medical records should be kept — recommendations vary by country, condition type, and personal circumstance. The general principle is: keep records with long-term clinical relevance permanently, and retain records related to recent care for as long as they might be needed for follow-up or reference.

Records to keep permanently

• Vaccination records: These are required throughout life — for travel, immigration, school, and healthcare. They cannot be recovered if lost and should be kept permanently.
• Diagnosis records for chronic or serious conditions: Cancer, genetic conditions, autoimmune diagnoses, and other major conditions should be documented permanently. Future doctors need this context.
• Surgical and procedure records: Operative reports and anaesthesia records are essential for any future procedures and should never be discarded.
• Pathology and biopsy results: These documents have long-term implications and are difficult to recover years after they were issued.
• Drug allergy documentation: Formal documentation of allergies — especially drug allergies — should be kept permanently and carried actively, as it directly affects every clinical decision.

Records to keep for 7–10 years

• Specialist letters and referral summaries
• Significant lab results, especially abnormal results
• Imaging reports
• Discharge summaries from hospital stays
• Pregnancy and birth records

Records that can be reviewed after 3–5 years

• Routine GP visit notes for minor illness
• Normal routine lab results (a summary of trends is sufficient; individual normal results are less critical)
• Repeat prescriptions that have since changed

For children's records

Keep all children's records until they reach adulthood, then transfer control to them. Vaccination records, developmental assessments, and any specialist letters are particularly worth preserving throughout childhood and into adult life.

The records worth keeping permanently

Some health records have a shelf life of months. Others are clinically relevant for the rest of a person's life. The distinction matters for how you organise long-term storage.

• Permanently: Surgical reports, anaesthesia records, major diagnoses with documentation, oncology records, significant imaging results, vaccination history, birth records, allergy documentation
• Ten years minimum: GP consultation summaries, specialist letters, prescription records, hospital discharge summaries
• Until resolved: Records related to ongoing claims, insurance disputes, or open referrals

For families with children, records from birth through adolescence — developmental assessments, vaccination schedules, growth data, significant diagnoses — should be retained indefinitely. Children cannot consent to what is kept or discarded on their behalf, and gaps in early health history can affect clinical decisions decades later.

See also: what medical records to keep and secure medical record storage.

Not sure what to expect? View an example doctor-ready summary first.

Related reading: Preparing records when moving abroad — which historical records international transitions require. Doctor visit preparation — which historical records every new consultation may request. How to organise medical records — applying retention rules to a full organised system. Medical records guide — the complete framework including retention decisions.

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