29.05.14
Care.data should be opt-in – GPs
Data extraction from patient records should only take place with the “explicit and informed” consent of patients “opting-in”, GPs have stated.
During the Local Medical Committees conference in York, nearly three-quarters of the representatives said they believed care.data extraction should be reliant on patients opting-in to the programme.
GPs also stated that they were placed in a tough position by the “competing demands” of the Health and Social Care Act and the Data Protection Act.
For instance, under the Data Protection Act GPs are ‘controllers of patient records’, meaning they have a duty to ensure a person’s personal data is handled transparently. However, the Health and Social Care Act says that GPs are legally required to provide data to the Health and Social Care Information Centre for the care.data programme, putting GPs in a very tough position.
Devon GP Kate Gurney said: “I feel very strongly that we should be asking patients to actively opt-in. [We should also] halt this transfer until every single patient has received a personal letter with a reply slip expressing their consent to opt-in.”
GPs also agreed that data extracted under the government’s postponed care.data scheme should be pseudonymised and anonymised before leaving the GP practice.
Tim Kelsey, NHS England director for patients and information, delayed the initial go-live date for care.data by six months earlier this year, following complaints that the public had not received enough information about the scheme. Dr Beth McCarron-Nash, a GP in Truro and GPC negotiator, claimed, Kelsey would be informed of the results of the conference where GPs also approved the delay of the care.data roll out until the autumn.
She added: “The public and doctors have lost confidence in care.data, and any perception of good has been lost because of their absolutely diabolical information campaign, which was actually just a disaster.”
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