NHS & Care data scheme

[alchresearch]

Very good article about care.data by Ben Goldacre in the Guardian today.

 

He's a very level headed individual. I liked this bit of the article:

 

That said, many criticisms have been absurd. There has been endless discussion around the idea of health insurers buying health records, for example, and using them to reject high-risk patients. Call an insurer right now and see how you get on: within minutes you will be asked to declare your full medical history, waive confidentiality and grant access to your full medical notes anyway.

[altus]

He's a very level headed individual. I liked this bit of the article:

 

As I mentioned before, that's different from insurance (and other) companies getting hold of the details of people who have had no dealings with them and using them to target them with adverts.

 

I preferred this bit of the article:

Lastly, we need stiff penalties for infringing medical privacy, on a grand and sadistic scale. Fines are useless, like parking tickets, for individuals and companies: anyone leaking or misusing personal medical data needs a prison sentence, as does their CEO. Their company – and all subsidiaries – should be banned from accessing medical data for a decade. Rush some test cases through, and hang the bodies in the town square.

[alchresearch]

Its true, fines are useless and paid for by the taxpayer anyway. Although its been quiet of late, barely a week went by last year when some USB stick or other was lost by a council or government department.

[altus]

Firm linked to drug makers sought pact on access to patient records database.

[debs-b]

Read this today. Totally shocking.

Hospital records of all NHS patients sold for insurance purposes days after controversial plans to extract patient data from GP files put on hold.

The Telegraph

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10656893/Hospital-records-of-all-NHS-patients-sold-to-insurers.html

[999tigger]

Actually that really is shocking. I do hope the IC investigate. I think its on such a huge scale that the police should be brought in as well.

[xfox3x]

It's absolutely disgusting.

[megalithic]

This is disgusting.

 

I can't believe more noise hasn't been made about it.

[Karis]

It is truly disgraceful, but another really outrageous injustice which will go unpunished.

[watchcoll]

It is disgusting. The article makes it sound like insurers are looking for any excuse to bump up the premiums on their "critical illness cover" policies, which everyone has got wise to judging by the plummeting sales figures.

I almost bought one of these. The insurance salesman fought so hard to sell me it. It was a total waste of £36 a month. After getting home, reading the small print & realising that a)the cover is limited to very, very specific circumstances, b)it only pays out if you are given less than 12 to live- thats what they mean by critical, & c)life insurance & income protection insurance basically do the same thing and are more likely to pay out when you need it. Total fallacy. I cancelled it three hours after signing up for it.