What are the rules regarding relatives reading in-patient medical notes?

[miranda1]

My Dad is in hospital at the moment. My brother and I have been told we cannot read the case notes but will have to make an application for it to the hospital medical records dept. This will take several weeks by which time we won't need to know what is in the notes. We feel Dad is being neglected. We are having to tell the doctors and nurses every time he is poorly, otherwise they simply don't notice or take the required blood tests and x-rays, etc. We are also not being kept informed of what is going on. Can someone please tell me what the rules are, wrt NOK (next of kin) reading the notes? A friend of ours has told us that the hospital is lying about us not having the right to read the notes. He said we only need Dad's permission and we have that. He said they always lie about this because they are scared of what patients or NOK will do if they know what is recorded in their notes. So we want to make a formal complaint to the hospital and force them to allow us to read the notes. Can someone please advise me what the law is and if there is a link somewhere which we can quote to the hospital? Ta.