The Guardian reports that GPs are expressing grave doubts about access to the "Spine" - an electronic warehouse being built to store information on about 50 million patients. More than 60% of family doctors said they feared records would be vulnerable to hackers and unauthorised access by public officials from outside the NHS and social care.Photo left: Hawthorn berries on roadside in Bread Street, Ruscombe
Ministers have committed a large slice of the NHS's £12bn IT upgrade to developing the Spine. They acted on the assumption that doctors would provide the information without asking their patients' permission first. The new system has been constructed to upload information from GPs' computer systems automatically, without giving patients a say. But the poll found 51% of GPs are unwilling to allow this uploading without getting each patient's specific consent. Only 13% say they are willing to proceed without consent and the rest are unsure or lack enough information to comment.
I have to say I am not at all happy about this - only a few days ago I did a blog about concerns re fingerprint scanning in pubs. It seems at every turn information about ourselves is being shared with others. Private medical records should be just that - private. I will be asking my GP not to upload records to the government's 'Spine' database system - at the very least until concerns about future access to files, security issues and more are resolved.
Will the growing number of private companies operating in the health fields also be given access in the future? And what if sensitive information was leaked about individuals health records? Who else will have access? Even the purpose is somewhat vague - with the Government pressurising people to sign up or face the possibilities of poorer healthcare. I applaud the majority of GPs who still want to safeguard our privacy.
Read full Guardian article here.
3 comments:
I am not in principle against the idea of my medical records being held like this. What is importantant is the correct legislation is in place to stop the unauthorised access to this information other than to help in your personal health care or even aid the knowledge base to improve health care for everyone. Unauthorised use should be seen as a serious crime including idol gossip. As someone with a very thick hospital file i see the advantages of the computer system. I am also aware of the dangers of big insurance companies and the like using this information for their own benefits
Details of a new national cam,paign by Phil Booth - not me or a relation of mine but clearly has some similar views! Read this news release:
SPREAD OUR CHRISTMAS MESSAGE ABOUT THE BIG OPT OUT
Last week NO2ID, together with the foundation for information policy research (fipr), launched 'The Big Opt Out' - a campaign to draw people's attention to the growing database state in the guise of the government's NHS Care Record System (see www.TheBigOptOut.org). The system will form a huge centralised national database of patient medical records and personal information (sometimes referred to as the NHS ’spine’) with no opt-in or opt-out mechanism for patients at all. It is likely that this system will be linked to the National Identity Register via citizen's unique National Identity Register Number.
This Christmas we want to spread the word and get as many people to request an opt-out from the system as we possibly can. It's a time of the year when we all get in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. So we ask that supporters use this spirit of friendship to send the below email to everyone they know this Christmas.
EMAIL SUBJECT: Please don't send me a Christmas card this year
Instead, use the stamp to send a copy of this letter to your GP: http://www.TheBigOptOut.org/?page_id=23
Doing this will not only keep your own medical records where they should be – between yourself and your doctor - it will help protect medical confidentiality for everyone by demonstrating that you, like millions of others*, do not consent to your personal health information being uploaded to NHS central systems and potentially being made accessible to hundreds of thousands people - very few of whom would have anything to do with your clinical care.
Opting out in this way will not affect your access to healthcare but, if enough of us do it, it will send a powerful message to those in Whitehall who are currently trying to seize all of everybody's most private information without even seeking permission.
I was half-kidding about the Christmas card, but I'm deadly serious about opting out. Please read the letter and, if you agree that your privacy (and the privacy of everyone else in your family) is worth the price of a stamp, fill it in and send it to your GP.
And if you could also forward this mail to *your* Christmas card list, 2007 might end up being a very good New Year...
All the very best for the holiday season,
Phil
--
Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID
http://www.no2id.net
National campaign website at:
http://www.nhsconfidentiality.org
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