NHS Confidentiality campaign, The Big Opt Out, was set up to protect patient confidentiality and to provide a focus for patient-led opposition to the government’s intended NHS Summary Care Records System. This system was designed to be a huge national database of patient medical records and personal information with no opt-out mechanism for patients at all. It began to be rolled out during 2007, and was objectionable for many of the same reasons as the government’s proposed ID database.
YOUR PRIVACY
Your medical confidentiality is at risk from this new database, as over a million NHS employees and central government bureaucrats will have access to not only your medical records but also your demographic details name, address, NHS Number, GP details, phone number (even if it’s ex-directory) and mobile number.
There is no opt out whatsoever for your demographic details. You can only have them hidden in special circumstances were the police or social services to request it if, for example, you are a celebrity or on a witness protection scheme. Many public and private sector workers will otherwise have access to your address and phone number, from social workers to high street pharmacists.
You will eventually be allowed to ‘lock down’ some of your medical details. But although you can keep some of your medical details confidential from some of those involved in your care, they can override this if they think it’s necessary, and there is no way for you to keep your information confidential from civil servants. For the first time everyone’s most up-to-date and confidential details are to be held on one massive database.
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