NHS database

There is so much info about this, it would be easier to check out the link bellow. If you are wondering who I am, I post under the name ‘medical privacy’. If you click on any of my post, you can get a list of all the comments I have made about the ‘data rape’ the NHS are planning and a few other things.

http://forum.no2id.net/viewforum.php?f=58&sid=5adbb0b11b37864619586a8d52d0abb1

Emergency Care Summary

This is something that has been adapted in Scotland, but it seems not all patients are aware of it or who will have access to the information. Just so that I can put my mind to rest, here are the facts about it.

1) All prescriptions are uploaded and although only accessible for 42 days, it is kept for good (nobody seems to want to say why they keep it). These prescriptions include Viagra, Ant-depressants and medications used in an abortion.

“) The record is not only available to doctors and nurses treating you. It is also available to the admin staff, such as the receptionist. This means that if you are not willing to tell the lass on reception you are on Viagra, you should not allow her to access the record.

3) When I contacted NHS Grampian about the dangers of not allowing the receptionist access to the record, they could not provide any evidence to support the claim that saying no would in anyway endanger your life.

4) When a GP practice contacted their patients about the upload, 19% of patients opted out of it. This is about 1,500 times the opt-out received from the letter drop that NHSScotland did. As far as I know, no other GP practice has bothered to write to their patients about it and GPs refuse to tell patients who are sitting in front of them, that their medical info is shared nationally even though it would only take seconds to do so. The NHS refuses to say why GPs refuse to actively inform patients about the data sharing even though evidence suggest patients are not aware of the sharing which means the GPs are in effect in breach of the GMC/NHS codes of practice. 

admin staff and medical records

When you tell your doctor/consultant something, sometimes it is just between the 2 of you, but that is not always the case. It depends on what practice you go to and even between individual doctors./consultants.

For example some doctors make their own notes, while others simply tell one of the clerical staff so they can put it in your notes. That means if you were to see 2 different doctors for something, the people that know will vary. This means in some cases only the GP will know about that UTI, thrush or sexual problem, in other cases, the info will be shared. Even if they do not share it straight away, a lot of practice will allow admin staff full access to records in order to get information. For example if they wish to do a clinical audit, then admin staff will be allowed access to the clinical data where the patient can be identified or where they can guess who it belongs to. Nobody, not even NHS Grampian seems to be able to say admin staff need to know you have been raped/abused, had sexual problems, emotional problems, chest infection or a bad case of thrush. They are also not capable of saying why a receptionist needs to have access to the Emergency Care Summary.

Researchers and medical records

Your data might be getting shared for research without your consent. This is very complicated. If you have had treatment you should contact the data controller to ask if it has been shared. Even this might not be straight forward as they may be allowed to say no even if it has if they claim saying yes would cause you or others harm. Identifiable data from GUM clinics has already been shared under Section Sixty of the Health and Social Care Act 2001. There are even laws that allow the doctor to be fined £5000.00 if they respect your rights to privacy and refuse to share your clinical data! There are an ever-increasing number of reasons for sharing our data and a growing number wanting access (source Health Care Standards Unit).

 According to the Patient Information Advisory Group, Section Sixty can not be used if you have said no (but remember there are other laws that will allow them access even where you have said no and trying to get this refusal put in your records is extremely difficult. Over the last 20+ years I have said no to sharing several times but it never seemed to find it’s way into my records and some of those that were aware of it withdrew medical treatment).There is also a lot of controversy about why cancer researchers in the UK are allowed access to identifiable medical data when others such as the Germans are capable of doing research without it. That hardly makes it a “need to know” basis for sharing, yet it gets done. There is also nothing stopping them from asking the patient and allowing the patient to see the info before it is sent. This would help the patient know what is being shared and allows them to check it to make sure what they said was recorded accurately. It would also give them the chance to supply data they did not think was important). It seems however, that researchers in the UK do not like this and want to get the data regardless of what the patient thinks/says.
PIAG have even gone as far as to say it would be acceptable for identifiable data to be released about patients in the final stages of their terminal condition without their consent. Some people seem to think that it is insensitive to ask but OK to steal it behind the patients back and just hope they do not find out. If that is not a betrayal, then what is? It seems a case of what they do not know, will not hurt them, until they find out that is.
  

Stripped when walking down the street?

This is a report from the BBC about ‘virtual stipsearches’ that wer/are being considerd by the Home Office. The idea is to put them on things like lamp post, that way if you want to ‘virtualy strip search’ people, you can do so without them knowing.Whats the problem with this? The images are so detailed it is like someone taking a naked photo of you. These sort of images are already created in air-ports and some train stations, the only difference being they need to ask you first and you can take the far less intrusive pat down

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6309917.stm