The NHS has been accused of “jeopardising its relationship of trust with patients” reports The Guardian, after doctors speculate about the safety of patients’ medical records on the organisation’s newly created online database.
The idea is for the NHS to create an online summary of care record (SCR) for more than 50 million people in England to “improve the quality and safety of treatment provided by hospital staff and out-of-hours doctors by giving them access to information usually only held by a patient’s doctor”.
However, the process of gaining patient consent for this has cast a shadow over the project. Patients are implied to have agreed to the creation on an SCR unless they state otherwise, but some are questioning whether the public are receiving enough detail about this project to be aware of their rights.
While it is true that security for personal information held in the public sector may not have the best track record, we must remember the benefits that an SCR database would allow for treatment on the NHS. Having access to such information could be the difference between life and death in some cases, not to mention the number of man hours that could be saved in researching and verifying medical information in emergencies.
Clearly patients need to be well educated on the programme and the exact details of how and where their data will be stored and who will have access to it, but if we are not careful, we risk wrapping so much red tape around the project that the obstacles to recording the data may prevent it from ever offering any benefits.
Debbie,
You seem to start the post impartially, however, towards the end I can’t help but notice that you seem to be pro this initiative. While it isn’t mine to question other civilian views on topics, I have to query what great benefit you perceive the English public getting from such a database?
You state that access to a patient’s SCR could be the difference between life and death in some cases, I query how? An entire SCR is not required to know that someone is allergic to certain medication or that they suffer from a long term illness such as diabetes or epilepsy. I pose that selected information could be uploaded as opposed to an entire record. Having an entire record, potentially including details of embarrassing conditions that have no bearing over a patient’s current or future state of health, possibly available to a wide sector of staff within the NHS is just asking for trouble. I realise you have included a caveat similar in nature in your final paragraph but you’ve also declared a concern that red tape could prevent potential benefits being gained from the initiative. I put it to you, a controlled, transparent approach to this project would gain more backing from the public than it will if the government continue to try and implement it behind our backs. I will certainly oppose my record being uploaded – how dare the government assume the right of access to any of my personal information?