Plans to store patients' records under fire from doctors

Mar 4 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal

“Many doctors have serious and genuine concerns about the uplifting of patient medical records to a centrally-controlled database which they fear will lead to access being available to those records by many thousands of people working in the health service across the country.”

SCR, which contain details of patient medications, allergies, adverse reactions and other health information, is based on a patient’s GP record but is designed so any doctor treating a patient can add to it.

It is hoped information will be more easily shared, for instance between hospitals and surgeries where a patient is treated.

People are given up to 12 weeks to decide if they want to have their details uploaded onto the database. If they do not then they must ‘opt out’ of the system by contacting their GP – they can rejoin at any time.

But last night GPs said not enough information was being given to patients to enable them to make an informed decision about the scheme.

Dr Ford added: “Government is insisting there is an opt-out basis of consent for records to be uplifted rather than an opt-in system, meaning the vast majority of patients by doing nothing are allowing their records to be shared. The BMA Northern Council believes that this is not a true informed consent for those records to leave the safe keeping of their GP.

“The BMA initially agreed to support the piloting of the Government’s ideas in some areas, but believes there has been insufficient evidence from those pilots to support the rapid roll-out of the scheme across the country. We can not support a system which does not support proper informed consent and that most patients do not understand.”

But Rob Longstaff, health informatics manager at NHS North East said: “NHS organisations in the North East have begun writing to individual patients with information about the NHS summary care record, the benefits it can bring and what people need to do to make their choice.

“Primary Care Trusts are working closely with GPs to facilitate the introduction. Our aim is to inform patients properly about summary care records, rather than speed up the process by which they take a decision.”