A timely reminder from The Adam Smith Institute that the Department of Health is still intent on adding every persons medical records to the “Spine” national database without their consent :
Much fuss has been made in the media over the new NHS Database, which is costing an estimated £12.4billion to place everyone’s medical records on a central database (expected to be completed by 2015). Suffice to say, there doesn’t seem to be much sound reasoning behind such a colossal and costly project. The NHS claims that the database is necessary to replace the paper files currently held in GPs offices, allowing hospital and out of hours staff to access medical records in emergency situations. This may sound reasonable but the NHS has managed for years without this need for centralised information and there seems little evidence to support the argument that the public’s health is being compromised by having our medical records kept at the GP’s.
Despite all the soothing noises about data protection and security safeguards, no system is secure and certainly not a system that has the worlds 3rd largest workforce as users :
A total of 1,282,900 people in England have jobs with the NHS: 2 per cent of the 30 million people of working age.
Only the Chinese Army and the Indian State Railways are believed to employ more people — with 2.3 million and 1.5 million staff respectively — but both workforces represent a far smaller proportion of the national populations.
There is, however, a way to opt out of having your records uploaded which involves sending a simple letter to your GP :
So, thanks to The Big Opt Out and all the fuss in the media, I’m opting out of the NHS database. Our privacy in the UK has slowly been eroded by the vast amount of information that is being held on us and I can only hope that Cameron’s promise to return to traditional civil liberties will include a reigning back on the database society we live in.
The link to The Big Opt Out also has a section where you can input your details to generate a letter to your GP ready to sign and post – it could not be simpler to protect your private data. Go have a read and decide for yourself. As for me, my letter went in the post earlier.
NB – for clarity this is not the Opt Out from the “Summary Care Records” which you may have seen recently in the news but about your complete medical records being uploaded to a centralised database.
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