The other day in the post I had a leaflet saying, in effect, that in common with the rest of the UK population, all my medical records will be put on a computer database and become available to "those that need to see them" in June, unless I opt out.
Now I read that the entire population is to be given a personal web page and Government Offices such as DVLA are to be phased out.
goo.gl/7Lcf
Given that I'm in IT, and I have fast broadband at home, and that it's easier than phoning/writing etc - I can't work out why I am deeply uncomfortable about these developments.
Perhaps I've committed the sackable offence these days of being "resistant to change".
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 22 Mar 10 at 15:21
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If you work in IT and trust IT systems, then why have an issue? Now if you can really trust BT to run the IT holding your medical records is another thing though. It's called the Spine by the way.
www.btplc.com/Health/NHSIT/TheSpine/index.htm
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And everyone knows that the spine is a complex and delicate thing. Once you've had a problem with yours it is very rarely ever right again and can cause serious pain.
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In my previous life I had a good deal of input into the beginnings of the new NHS IT project (NPFIT). The main reason it has run into so many problems is that from the outset different regions worked with different IT providers and implimentation teams. These teams (in my experience) were run by university graduate 'systems developers' who neither knew, or wanted to learn about, the NHS and what was really required of a system to work efficiently. Because of this lack of understanding they then were unable to control the very strong willed opinions of the various consultants and managers who all fought their own corner to get a system they percieved as being 'right' for them.
Before I left we had gone through 3 different providers/implimentation teams and each started from scratch and NONE learnt anything from the mistakes of the last...
So I am very uneasy at any central data control provided from this abortion of a project!
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I think my feeling is that that metaphorically I'm just shrugging my shoulders and accepting that data leaks will occur. I'm think I just have to accept that and see if I care enough to opt out, in the case of the medical records.
I've mentally put it into the "don't won't shan't unless forced" category, along with ID cards and CRB checks.
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>> The other day in the post I had a leaflet saying in effect that in
>> common with the rest of the UK population all my medical records will be put
>> on a computer database and become available to "those that need to see them" in
>> June unless I opt out.
I have not yet had this letter. I asked the receptionist at the doctor's for a form. She said "Oh - I think the records have already been uploaded".
I wrote to the Practice Manager who tells me they won't be uploaded since my "opt-out letter". I am going to download a Form and sent that too, in case. I am going to ask the doctor whether my opt-out is on my records when I next see him.
I am very suspicious of this initiative for several reasons (below I may use "me" for "all of our"):
o - If there's a leak for any reason, "my" information will be, to all intents and purposes, permenantly and globally available.
o - Many staff apart from clinical staff will be able to view "my" records. I don't want this. There's further probability of leakage there too.
o - The law is subject to change. Who knows what will happen to these data in future, and where they will be used, and who will be able to view them[1]?
o - This will be a huge database of personal information - the most complete record on "me" so far. This, linked with other databases, will be the biggest ever expedition into the "1984" society that there has been.
o - The information is likely to have very little usefulness for its stated purpose of ensuring correct treatment anywhere, which only applies (currently) to England & Wales anyway. If you are, for instance, allergic to penecillin, of have a heart condition (or...), you'd be much better off with a "personal tag" or information container.
I am certainly going to opt out. I consider it to be my duty to, as much as anything else.
1) Cf. the DVLA records. Anyone can see them nowadays. They *used* to be sacrosanct.
Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Mon 22 Mar 10 at 16:32
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how will doctors cope if they arent allowed to carry files round with them?
you boy whats the bleeding time
er half past 4?
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Last I heard the plan was that they carried tablet pc's instead of notes which they could then wirelessly interrogate for the information. Unless of course the network was down or they had forgot to recharge the batteries.....
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Or they left it on a train!!
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A whole new meaning to "keep taking the tablets" though.
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More wine for you. Funny though!
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>> how will doctors cope if they arent allowed to carry files round with them?
They cope well enough at the moment. This new Database will add very little value, and the disadvantages seem to far outweigh the almost negligable advantages.
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I wouldn't worry about it, its not as if they will be informing car insurance companies that client xx has an alcohol problem.
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>> I wouldn't worry about it its not as if they will be informing car insurance
>> companies that client xx has an alcohol problem.
Anyone not worried by centralisation of data is extremely short-sighted.
Take a parallel. It wasn't so long ago that DVLA data was sacrosanct. Now, any Tom, Dick, Harry or jobsworth can get your information if they've a "good reason" (they want to parking-fine you, for instance).
If you think that this centrally-stored information will be forever subject to the current (rather lax) access requirements that it currently is, you will shortly have another think coming.
Once your information is out there, it's out there forever, and there's sweet FA you can do about it.
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But on the other hand FT..............
Mr pda had a worrying time just before Christmas when he was ill for 3 weeks and had to see an emergency doctor late at night, at a local hospital in a hurry, on two occasions with a 39 plus temperature.
It turned out to be cellulitis, but due to 2 previous long sessions of chemo he has a 'normal' low blood count which none of us was aware of and neither was the emergency doctor.
Had he have been able to access the exact drugs that had been used he could have perscribed far more acurately and we would not have had such a worrying time.
I really do think that you have to balance the advantages against the disadvantages. Mr pda, like a lot of others, travel all over the Country as a lorry driver and medical history needs to be available in any emergency.
Pat
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I'm not comfortable with personal details being stored in this way.
Time and time again we have seen in the past how government agencies mess these things up and it is almost certain this will happen again.
It might be a memory stick left on a train, a website left accidentally unecrypted, or a thousand photocopies of personal info blowing down the local high street, but it will happen.
All one can hope is the information these witless publicly-funded clowns let slip through their fingers is not actively damaging to the individual.
I don't think my medical history is very interesting to anyone other than me, but that doesn't mean I want to see it opened for public inspection.
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If you want, you can ask NHS to delete all your personal information (ie medical history etc.) from their system.
However, if you do that, legally NHS is no longer obliged to offer you a free service after that.
PS: NHS integration system was handed over to BT, who in turn outsourced it to overseas IT firms. So, theoretically, your (& mine too) data is accessible in foreign territory as well.
Last edited by: movilogo on Tue 23 Mar 10 at 17:33
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I can understand some having misgivings about their information falling into the wrong hands, particularly if it's of a sensitive nature.
Personally, I'm three score into my allotted time, and if I'm in some strange part of the kingdom and in urgent need of medical assistance that access to my records may assist, then I don't give a damn who looks into my haemorrhoids.
I recall being (briefly) at my firstborn's arrival (didn't make the second's - fifty minute labour) and SWMBO being asked if some students could observe. Her reply, to the effect of 'who cares, just get on with it' sums it up. The room was so full that shortly before passing out I think I saw the window cleaner peering in!
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...I think I saw the window cleaner peering in!...
Thought you said the father couldn't make it. :)
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I believe that my medical information should be available to all GP's and hospitals and the NHS needs to get its computer systems sorted out . My life might one day depend on it.
As the largest employer in the country why should it be relying on paper records 30 years after every other organisation. Its ridiculous.
Also my sympathies to Mr pda..
I had a bout of cellulitis last year caused from a tiny scratch to my ear while lopping back some branches and as the infection spread my ears and head were swollen and red and the pain was excrutiating. SWMBO was very sympathetic. i think raspberry bonce was the term used......
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Having witnessed first hand how happily the DVLA will hand over my personal details for the correct fee my opt-out form is in the post. :-)
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It must of been over 10 years ago that Larry Ellison of Oracle make the observation that if he saw something in the duty free of an airport the other side of the world, his credit card and and credit rating could be checked in seconds, yet his medical records were not available 30 miles away.
Our financial details are already available worldwide to many different Tom, Dick and Harrys, yet our lives may one day, heaven forbid, depend on quick access to our medical records in the next county...
(This doesn't excuse the scandal of DVLA selling details - do the Government or the DVLA get this income?)
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>> (This doesn't excuse the scandal of DVLA selling details - do the Government or the
>> DVLA get this income?)
motivation is government & freedom of information to anyone with a "need to know" etc same applies to lots of other details held by government & local authorities.
Who gets the money? As I have said before, in another place and time, the DVLA does not have any money of its own, like any government agency it has to account to the DfTfor its income and expenditure.
Any money it gets from driving licences, VED, provision of names and addresses, is government money any way you look at it
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>> The other day in the post I had a leaflet saying in effect that in
>> common with the rest of the UK population all my medical records will be put
>> on a computer database and become available to "those that need to see them" in
>> June unless I opt out.
Our daughter is a "runner" in the local hospital and part of her job is to take the patient's notes (i.e. medical records) to and from the consultant. They're all hand written. I asked her when they would be computerised and she said that there were no plans to do that. Some patients have reams and reams of notes. It would take an eternity to computerise them. I'll believe what the leaflet says when I see it.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 25 Mar 10 at 07:13
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Here you go then Mr L - see what you think?
It says they will create a record with major stuff on it to start with, then add things as needed.
Not my area, but same leaflet.
www.westessex.nhs.uk/yourhealth/pdfs/scrpatientleaflet.pdf
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An unnerving proposition? - rtj70
