NHS database raises privacy fears, say doctors
James Sturcke and Denis Campbell write in the Guardian:
Doctors’ leaders are warning government ministers that the NHS is jeopardising its relationship of trust with patients by creating a vast atabase of personal medical records. GPs say they fear patients’ rights are being overlooked, that “scaremongering” is being used to get people’s agreement for the database, and that hackers could illegally access the central computer.
They report:
Some GPs are refusing to release their patients’ details until each one has specifically agreed. “We will not upload anyone’s records without their explicit consent,” said Dr Neil Bhatia of Yateley, Hampshire. “We control the data records and we are responsible for its release. No one can force us to upload it without a court order.”
Wirral primary care trust in Cheshire was recently warned that pursuing summary records could be illegal. Despite these reservations, it accepted almost £70,000 from the NHS to pay for packs to be sent to patients.
Prof Ross Anderson, a security expert at Cambridge University, said there was no guarantee that only NHS staff treating someone could access their records.
Hundreds of thousands of health service personnel would have a swipecard to enter the system.
“You just can’t keep a secret if 300,000 people have access to it. All celebrities should definitely opt out … the sort of things you can find on SCRs, such as prescriptions for anti-retroviral drugs, can also be highly stigmatising.”
March 8th, 2010 at 15:09
I have already requested to come off the NHS spine system but need to write in again to stay off the new summary care record system (SCR). People may not realise this; is it something a reminder could be sent on?
Also, wondered if a new template letter might be available on this site or write our own?
thanks, Angela
March 9th, 2010 at 18:26
As with Angela Mansi, both my husband and myself have already handed a letter to our GP in 2007 refusing our medical details to be given to the NHS spine system. The new information leaflets regarding the summary care record system which we have just received is cleverly designed and makes no mention of the Spine, this is going to confuse everyone and give a false impression. In fact it goes to great length to tell you how much you will benefit.
I have phoned the no. given on the letter we received and requested an optout form which they have promised to send. In fact having later gone into Healthspace website there is a form which can be run off for this purpose.
What is annoying that we have already made our wishes known and now we have to repeat the procedure.
Just a further point, when I asked the gentleman if this was the same as the Spine, he had no idea what I was talking about.
If some people wish to look into this yet again, I strongly advise them to visit the website and see the entire prolonged procedure. Giving private details to a complete stranger, and in one area an applicant was told to go to a local Boots chemist.
This shambles is bad enough, what happens if you are an elderly person and not able to use or access a computer does that mean you are going to be considered as ‘not existing’. It is bad enough the very poor care that the elderly are receiving.
There are some very subversive elements to this process which I find totally unacceptable.
March 10th, 2010 at 08:56
Angela asked: “Also, wondered if a new template letter might be available on this site or write our own?”
You can either use “The Big Opt Out” letter ( http://www.thebigoptout.org/optoutletter ) or download and print the “official” NHS form ( http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/scr/documents/optout.pdf ). The actual form is on page 3 of the NHS leaflet.
March 10th, 2010 at 12:33
Sorry Andrew, but the Big Opt Out letter applied to the Spine in 2007.
As for the connecting for health link, this is now unavailable.
I would suggest to Angela to go into the Summary Care Records website and following the instructions to opting out.
March 11th, 2010 at 09:25
Cynthia – The Connecting for Health form is still available at: http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/scr/documents/optout.pdf
Unfortunately the way I’d posted the URL on the comments thread meant that clicking on it appended a spurious “)”, which broke it. I’ve now edited the original post to fix this. My apologies.
I’m told that the BigOptOut letter will still work, because it tells your doctor to add the vital “93C3″ code to your record. However, I will get in touch with TheBigOptOut to see about getting it updated.