Care Record opt out patients told to explain reasons in person
Steve Nowottny writes in Pulse:
NHS managers have told thousands of patients they will only be allowed to opt out of having a Summary Care Record if they come and explain their reasons in person, Pulse can reveal.
More than 500 patients at an early adopter site in Birmingham have already been forced to explain face-to-face why they are refusing to take part in the scheme.
And in Stoke-on-Trent patients have been told they will automatically be given a care record unless they discuss their reasons with ‘NHS advisers’.
The demands – condemned by BMA leaders as ‘appalling’ – come amid mounting concern that PCTs are placing undue pressure on patients to take part in the project as the national rollout gathers pace.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:51
As a matter of information, when the ideal of a NHS database first came to our attention both myself and my husband went to the BIG OPT OUT WEB SITE, copied the letter and sent it to our GP and the Dept.of Health. Our GP never raised any queries – however, when speaking to a member of the Department of Health, after receiving their bombastic regular letter – I telephoned the writer and we had to say the least quite an argument – I listened to her reasons then told her I was not going to agree to this invasion of our privacy. Eventually she gave in. We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by these government officials, they read from a ’script’ and any deviation upset them. So we must continue to ‘upset them’.