FishNChipPapers
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Joined: 20 Jul 2007
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 Posted: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:45:01 +0000 Post subject: CW: Concern as patient records leave the NHS |
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http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/10/24/232833/concern-as-patient-records-leave-the-nhs.htm
| Quote: | The Department of Health has amassed a central database of one billion confidential records on patient visits to hospitals and is transferring extracts to an academic organisation outside the NHS.
Computer Weekly has learned that the central database, called the Secondary Uses Service, contains over one billion records and is expanding rapidly. NHS trusts are submitting new records for uploading onto the database at a rate of one million a day.
The data is used for important medical research, aimed at improving NHS treatments and healthcare.
But experts are concerned the data is being used without patients giving specific consent for their private medical information to be uploaded to the Secondary Uses Service. |
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Computer Weekly has also learned that the government's own advisers question whether there is a solid legal basis for the Secondary Uses Service database. One of the legal issues is whether the government should amass private, identifiable data on patients for purposes not directly connected to their care or treatment.
Although lawyers, doctors and IT specialists recognise the benefits of medical research based on patient data, they say that people may be losing control of their medical information which has traditionally resided in GP practices or the IT systems of local hospitals. |
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But the government's own advisers, the Patient Information Advisory Group, which is a statutory body, has questioned whether the government has a solid legal grounding for obtaining, holding and processing identifiable patient data to produce anonymous data extracts for analysis.
Whitehall officials, however, say lack of a clear legal status for the Secondary Uses Service does not make the database unlawful.
Computer Weekly has further learned the Department of Health plans to make wider use of the Secondary Uses Service by making extracts available to commercial organisations, after removing data from records which identifies the patient, such as date of birth, NHS number and postcode. |
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