NHS & Care data scheme

[esme]

This non-commercial website represents the personal views of Dr Neil Bhatia, GP and Caldicott Guardian for the Oaklands Practice in Yateley.

 

OK that's basically a personal blog by one GP, but he does seem to have done some research.

 

There's also medConfidential for more information.

 

I advise you to do your own research just in case the good doctor is wrong and also so you can make your own mind up what to do.

 

In a nutshell from March 2014 the Health and Social Care Information Centre is going to begin hoovering up your confidential medical records currently held by your GP, this information will be traceable back to the individual.

 

This data will initially contain :-

 

• Your NHS number
  
• Your date of birth
  
• Your postcode
  
• Your gender and ethnicity
  
• Your medical diagnoses (including cancer and mental health) and any complications
  
• Your referrals to specialists
  
• Your prescriptions
  
• Your family history
  
• Your vaccinations and screening tests
  
• Your blood test results
  
• Your body mass index (height/weight)
  
• Your smoking/alcohol habits
  

 

But this may be expanded on in future data uploads.

 

Please note your prescriptions can tell someone an awful lot about what medical conditions you have

 

This information will be merged with hospital records, which HSCIC have already obtained and will be kept up to date as your medical history progresses.

 

This information will not be made available to medical professionals it has nothing to do with your medical care, it will be made available to various organisations for essentially data mining purposes, these organisations will not be audited by HSCIC to ensure they are using your data correctly and maintaining your confidentiality.

 

These organisations include the following types of non NHS organisations

 

• Pharmaceutical companies
  
• Health charities
  
• Universities and other academic organisations
  
• Hospital trusts
  
• Medical Royal Colleges
  
• Information intermediaries
  
• Think-tanks
  
• Commercial companies
  

 

The "Commercial companies" one is rather vague, could it include employment agencies or health insurance companies ? who knows ?

 

Once the HSCIC obtain your data you cannot control who they give it to.

 

The database will be administered by software and services provided by ATOS.

 

Now if you have any concerns about this then firstly I suggest you do your own research just to be sure, but if after that you still have concerns then you can opt out, there are forms on the link at the top of the post or you can use one of these

 

Opt out letter (PDF) or Opt out letter (MS Word)

 

from medConfidential

 

Personally I think the use of information that can be directly traced back to the individual is an unwarranted intrusion and I will be opting out entirely.

 

I can always change my mind later and opt back in.

 

If you think it's a good idea then you don't have to do anything and the data collection will proceed, however if you change your mind later you cannot get the data deleted from the database.

 

You can I believe request that HSCIC anonymise future requests to access your data but it will be too late to apply this to anything that has already been shared with a third party.

 

I also believe you can request that data HSCIC shares be anonymised from the second they get it, but I don't have a form for that and they will still access the data from your GP including your personally identifiable information, so it will be in the database that ATOS will be administering.

[salsafan]

Thank you for sharing this information Esme. I was reading an article about Experian before and how come they could credit check people's records and therefore not increase lending. This kind of information and data mining may be used in the future for insurance purposes. Or medical research. But at what kind of cost ?

 

There really should be a watchdog or a government Agency which monitors and watch over who gave what kind of information to who, as this is really public data and record and also personal information which is not necessarily given consent by the citizen themselves as an individual. These are very very confidential and private healthcare information.

 

Hey, if anyone starts a petition, I would definitely sign that petition to stop this kind of information from being consolidated. A lot of people kick up a fuss over cookies in the past, but that is small potato issue compared to this. As these are records which can then be used and manipulated back onto the citizen at a future date.

[erebus]

The government is in the pockets of the corporations, and they change the law as they are told, while telling us to trust them. This Brave New Corporate World is not interested in individuals but profit, and each individual can be exploited to consume applicable medication not just for profit, but also experiment, as in testing new drug compounds.

 

You are the new lab rats, but it is now just the beginning, and it will be subtle as new drugs in the future will be offered to help with various medicalised conditions, especially in the areas of psychological conditions. WELCOME TO THE VIAGRA OF HAPPINESS, soon to be dispensed at a practice near you, this is the corporate future, so GET USED TO IT!

[esme]

You can opt out of this Erebus, it's not a done deal

[saunaman]

Thankyou very much Esme , I was in the process of drafting a GP letter for my friends and family , but will now be happy to use your suggested format via a link . There's not much in my medical records , but I still do not want it shared with all and sundry . I certainly do not want ATOS getting their oily palms on any information .......

 

T-mobile recently contacted me to transfer onto a direct debit scheme as opposed to "Pay as you go" , but in order to qualify for direct debit I had to answer a series of multiple choice questions on : myself -changes of bank account , fuel supplier etc .. The , albeit very polite T-mobile guy knew more about me than I knew myself !!! Sorry but I keep personal data to a minimum these days , call me paranoid but give it a couple of years and you'll understand that I was right .

[onewheeldave]

This non-commercial website represents the personal views of Dr Neil Bhatia, GP and Caldicott Guardian for the Oaklands Practice in Yateley.

 

OK that's basically a personal blog by one GP, but he does seem to have done some research.

 

Cheers for the heads-up on that one esme- I'll get to work on opting out.

 

Annoying though- it's not that long since they tried the same thing with the 'summary care record' which I also opted out of.

 

These things should be opt-in, not opt-out.

[Moosey]

Personally, it bothers me not one bit.

 

There's nothing in there that I would care if people found out.

 

I hardly see my GP, but all my records would confirm is that I have slightly high blood pressure and an allergy to certain food colourings. I don't really care who knows that.

 

Even if I had some more obscure condition, it wouldn't bother me, quite frankly.

 

There are far more ways that such data is available than you would think. For example, I could have a client with a claim against an individual, and without their consent could obtain their medical records, financial records, details of salary, home ownership etc etc. Might need a Court Order, but since Data Protection doesn't apply in legal proceedings, it's not difficult. I've had Defendant's school records before, without their knowledge.

 

As for health insurance companies, yes, this data might be sent to them, but seeing as you have to consent to the release of records for insurance anyway, and withholding information is reason to void a policy, there's no risk.

 

My question would simply be - what is the actual risk posed by this company? What actual harm could be done? I genuinely can't see it.

[erebus]

Of course you it would not bother you Moosey, why should it, and the I'm all right Jack sod the rest of you is the correct attitude today.

 

But your history might be unimportant, but its not just you is it? Its who you know, wife and kids, relations and so on. If a relative, child does something questionable the whoe family history can be used against said person when it comes to employment issues, as all information from police records, NHS, education, helps give a picture of the type of people you all are. If necessary telephone and internet data is ther for all to make something out of nothing, which is just the start.

 

So you might live the life of a saint, but relatives, family and such might not, and if they got into debt, you might be a good person to tap to pay it off, as its all open to certain corporate interests, such as insurance, banks, motoring and the rest. your saintly life will be judged by lots of information, and looking at it from a police point of view, they might regard your halo as a way to strangle you with.

 

Collecting information might seem innocent, but never forget not all are as good as you, and where there is potential profit, you just become another sucker to blackmail, or your family and relations. You might think you are innocent but some might regard it as a cover, but you are all right innit!!!

[salsafan]

........

 

T-mobile recently contacted me to transfer onto a direct debit scheme as opposed to "Pay as you go" , but in order to qualify for direct debit I had to answer a series of multiple choice questions on : myself -changes of bank account , fuel supplier etc .. The , albeit very polite T-mobile guy knew more about me than I knew myself !!! Sorry but I keep personal data to a minimum these days , call me paranoid but give it a couple of years and you'll understand that I was right .

Really? He should not know these information beforehand. Was he not asking them from you to fill into his system instead? If you noticed, sometimes direct debit are sent out as forms for people to fill in, instead, so that it is only a centralised team who can deal with customer's sensitive information. They also need security clearance normally being doing such jobs.

 

I would ask for clarification and understanding on that bit about credit checking. Hm.

[Moosey]

Of course you it would not bother you Moosey, why should it, and the I'm all right Jack sod the rest of you is the correct attitude today.

 

But your history might be unimportant, but its not just you is it? Its who you know, wife and kids, relations and so on. If a relative, child does something questionable the whoe family history can be used against said person when it comes to employment issues, as all information from police records, NHS, education, helps give a picture of the type of people you all are. If necessary telephone and internet data is ther for all to make something out of nothing, which is just the start.

 

So you might live the life of a saint, but relatives, family and such might not, and if they got into debt, you might be a good person to tap to pay it off, as its all open to certain corporate interests, such as insurance, banks, motoring and the rest. your saintly life will be judged by lots of information, and looking at it from a police point of view, they might regard your halo as a way to strangle you with.

 

Collecting information might seem innocent, but never forget not all are as good as you, and where there is potential profit, you just become another sucker to blackmail, or your family and relations. You might think you are innocent but some might regard it as a cover, but you are all right innit!!!

 

Way to rant there.

 

Can you give examples of what exactly you're afraid of here as you've been rather generic. What information that isn't already readily available are you thinking is going to be obtained and used and in what specific negative way.

 

While we're at it please stop judging people you don't know. I'm far from perfect.

 

 

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