Though they soon will, patients should not have a legal right to see their medical records  As a doctor, I see two reasons for this  First, giving them access will be time-wasting because it will significantly reduce the amount of time that medical staff can spend on more important duties, by forcing them to retrieve and return files
Second, if my experience is anything to go by, no patients are going to ask for access to their records anyway
Some doctors have all along had a policy of allowing their patients access to their medical records, but those doctors' patients took no advantage of this policy.