Plans to store patients' records under fire from doctors

Mar 4 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal

LEADING doctors in the North East have attacked Government plans to upload patients’ medical records onto a centrally-stored electronic database.

Summary Care Records (SCR) is an electronic version of patients’ key health information derived from their doctor’s notes and shared between healthcare staff.

The system will link more than 30,000 GPs to nearly 300 hospitals through an online appointments system, a centralised medical records database for 50 million patients, e-prescriptions and computer network links. Roll-out plans for the region are in line with national guidance and completion is scheduled by March next year.

But top doctors in the North East have raised fears about data safety issues surrounding uploading potentially sensitive and confidential information.

Dr Roger Ford, honorary secretary of the British Medical Association’s Northern Council said: “Traditionally, a patient’s complete personal, and often intimate, medical records are kept strictly private within the confines of their GP’s practice with a strictly controlled and limited access by a small number of professional people within the practice.

“That information is shared with other professional colleagues, such as hospital consultants, on a need-to-know basis.