From Cradle to Grave (via RAID array)
Millions of personal medical records are to be uploaded regardless of patients’ wishes to a central national database from where information can be made available to police and security services, the Guardian has learned.Details of mental illnesses, abortions, pregnancy, HIV status, drug-taking, or alcoholism may also be included, and there are no laws to prevent DNA profiles being added. The uploading is planned under Whitehall’s bedevilled £12bn scheme to computerise the entire health service.
The NHS wants to create a national database of medical records, without your permission. 250,000 NHS staff will have access to your records. Feel safer yet?
November 1, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Personally, I think that’s better. I’d rather a doctor treating me after an accident actually has access to my medical records instantly than having to wait a week to find out whether he can use penicillin or not. I wouldn’t want this information being made available to insurance companies or the police though – it should stay private.
November 2, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Grill: With a centralised system like this, your data may well end up being available to those people, one way or another. Scope creep, lobbying by industry, crooked employees, whatever.
Recently, the DVLA have had to restrict private companies from having access to vehicle data, never mind medical records, due to abuses of trust.
Actually, forget about your data being sold; the top-notch job the Government makes of its computing projects allows things like this to occur:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/29/home_office_data_breaches/
It may not be so bad after all, however, as we may never see this project completed given the rate at which NHS IT moves.
December 15, 2007 at 3:27 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce