Hundreds of millions of medical records shared

It would seem the government have agreed to allow academics access to hundreds of millions of medical records without patient consent or knowledge. I would try and pretend to be shocked, but that would require acting good enough to get me an Oscar, so I think I will give it a miss.

 

Computer weekly wrote “The transferred records contain patient-identifiable information on nearly every stay by patients in hospitals in England, and visits to an accident and emergency department. Also within the transferred records are 215 million confidential files on visits to outpatient departments.”

 

So who got the information? First of all the data was sent to BT (they run a service called the Secondary Use Service) who then passed this information to the Dr Foster unit.

 

Computerweekly.com also points out “The Dr Foster Unit has received for research purposes 500 million health records, which includes 180 million inpatient and day cases. The unit has 285 million files which include patient-identifiable information”.

 

We are constantly told by the NHS, the government and researchers that patient privacy is something that is taken seriously, yet hundreds of millions of records are shared without patient consent.

 

With the government (along with backing from researchers) determined to make everyone’s record available via a national database accessible the police, researchers and countless others, things can only get worse.

 

As always, please follow the links for more information:

 

Computerweekly.com story:

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2008/10/patient-records-leave-nhs-offi.html

 

Dr Foster Unit:

http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/about/divisions/ephpc/pcsm/research/drfosters/

 

BT (sorry, SUS)

http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/systemsandservices/sus

 

 

Termination rights

Having not said anything for a while, I thought it was about time I did and I thought I would go with something controversial.

 

There has been talk about a woman’s right to have a termination without having to get permission from 2 GPs and some people really hate that idea.

 

Being a bloke, I do not think I am in a position to say what is definitely right or wrong however I do think I can raise questions that people should be asking.

 

If a woman wants a termination and does not get approval from 2 GPs (20% GPs want terminations stopped and 25% refuse based on their own ethics), will she simply find anther way? For example she could force a miscarriage or go to a backstreet abortionist.

 

Should we not be doing more to avoid unwanted pregnancy in the 1^st place? This is where a lot of people seem rather 2 faced. Some people are completely against the idea of a termination but at the same time do not approve of contraception. In other words, they think you should only have sex if you are prepared to have children. If the result is you getting pregnant and giving your child away, then they would rather have that. Sorry to be blunt, but if that is your attitude, you really need to wake up and get in the real world with the rest of us.

 

There is also the issue of sexual assaults. There are people that think even if you get pregnant by rape you should be forced to have the child. Should someone that was raped be told what to do with her own body after having that right taken away from some sick pervert? What happens to those who get raped but do not want to rport it, ether because they do not want others to know or because they see reporting it a waste of time (the conviction rate for rape in the UK is embarassingly low)?

 

Then there is all those with access to the fact she had a termination. Accesse to such info is a large subject (see some of my previous notes), but would others knowing be yet another reason for a woman to go to the backstreets?

 

I do not think getting a termination is something any woman would find easy, but the way the current system works is not helping and is probably making things far worse. There is no reason why a woman can not book directly with a clinic where she can get advice, sources of help and some counselling before she makes up her mind.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7674361.stm

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-452318/One-GPs-wants-ban-abortion.html

 

http://www.pharmj.com/editorial/20000715/news/bpas_contraception.html

 

http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=1912

 

http://www.medic8.com/medicines/Morning-after-pill.html

 

http://www.prochoicemajority.org.uk/

 

http://prolife.org.uk/