This appeared in the UK yesterday.
Jeremy Hunt plans sale of confidential patient medical records to private firms
Confidential medical records may be offered to private companies for as little as £1, according to plans drawn up by officials.
2:20PM BST 18 Aug 2013
The new General Practice Extraction Service will consolidate NHS patient records sent to a central database by GPs around the country.
The project has been described by campaigners as an "unprecedented threat" to medical confidentiality, and doctors do not have to inform patients that their records are being passed on.
The records will include details of medical conditions and patient identifiable information including a patient's NHS number, postcode and date of birth, reports the Daily Mail.
Private firms such as Bupa are able to purchase the records for research by applying to the Health Service.
The project is being driven by NHS England but has been championed by Jeremy Hunt.
It is hoped that sharing GP records with universities and private companies could give a boost to NHS coffers as well as providing a valuable tool for medical research, monitoring flu outbreaks and screening for common diseases.
Mr Hunt also believes that providing easier access to health information will attract pharmaceutical companies and life sciences firms to the UK.
However, privacy campaigners have expressed reservations over the data sharing plans.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "The more people who have access to sensitive data, the greater the risk that it will not be protected properly. We’ve seen that on umpteen occasions in the past.
"And when there’s a financial element involved, it introduces all sorts of incentives that are not necessarily about protecting privacy."
More here:
All I can say is that both the Government and Opposition should rule this sort of information abuse out immediately.
We all know DoHA hope to mine the PCEHR information to assist managing the health system and if done with proper safeguards doing this may JUST be acceptable - not that I think it is - but the UK plan is totally over the top!
This has to be a very, very good reason never to contribute any sensitive information to the PCEHR as we all know politicians cannot be trusted not to abuse our trust.
This has to be a very, very good reason never to contribute any sensitive information to the PCEHR as we all know politicians cannot be trusted not to abuse our trust.
Oh dear, oh dear.
David.
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