GPs threaten to boycott 'Big Brother' NHS database which would force them to send confidential patient records to private firms

  • General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) is pet project of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt
  • GPs say NHS England has failed to tell patients about ‘care.data’ scheme or to promote it properly

By STEPHEN ADAMS, MEDICAL EDITOR, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

Published: | Updated:

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt argues sharing GP records with universities and private companies will be valuable for medical research and screening for common diseases

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt argues sharing GP records with universities and private firms will be valuable for medical research and screening for common diseases

GPs are threatening to boycott a ‘Big Brother’ database being introduced by the NHS.

Under the new General Practice Extraction Service (GPES), doctors will be forced to send confidential patient records to a central database.

The idea is a pet project of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt – who argues sharing GP records with universities and private companies will be valuable for medical research and screening for common diseases.

But GPs say NHS England has failed to tell patients about the ‘care.data’ scheme or to promote it properly.

Dr Jane Lothian,  a GP and medical secretary of Northumberland Local Medical Committee (LMC), said patients were not getting ‘an informed choice’.

Despite assurances the sensitive information will be kept anonymous, she feared patients could be identified from the data, saying: ‘With anything but very common conditions, people are identifiable.’

These worries prompted Northumberland LMC to contemplate ‘a county-wide opt out’ – and other LMCs have also been thinking along such lines.

Dr Bruce Hughes, chairman  of Devon LMC, said GPs  were ‘almost duty bound’ to automatically opt-out of sending their patients’ medical records if they felt strongly about it.

An NHS England spokesman said: ‘The programme will provide vital information to approved organisations about the quality of health services.’

GPs say NHS England has failed to tell patients about the 'care.data' scheme or to promote it properly. Posed by models

GPs say NHS England has failed to tell patients about the 'care.data' scheme or to promote it properly. Posed by models

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