The medical records of around 50 million NHS patients
are set to be uploaded to the “spine” of a national database early
next year without the subjects’ consent.
The move, reported in the Guardian newspaper, is part
of the troubled £12.4bn NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).
Specifications drawn up in 2003 for providers of the electronic
care record system, a key part of NPfIT, explicitly stated, “A
patient will not be entitled to refuse to make their personal data
available to the Spine.
“Data about all patient events may be routinely communicated to
the Spine without the consent of the patient."
Doctors’ organisations have raised concerns about the lack of
explicit consent from NHS patients.
But health minister Lord Warner said, “Those records are not the
property of GPs. Other health professionals need to access them to
provide safe treatment. In that context, we have no intention of
moving away from implementing the electronic care record. But we
will ensure there is a public information campaign so that people
know what is happening.”
Some basic data – including addresses, aliases and phone numbers
- has already been uploaded, the Guardian said. Details of
patients’ allergies and the medications they received from them are
set to be added in two local pilot schemes early next year.
Information about medical diagnoses and hospital visits will be
added later.
The government intends to move ahead on the basis that patients
will be allowing opting out of having their data shared between
health professionals. But patients will not be allowed to have
their information removed from the national system.
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