According to Gillian Braunold, it’s all for our own good, of course. Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she?
The chairman of the BMA, Dr Hamish Meldrum, declared this week that NHS consultants and GPs “have coped up until now without an electronic record of patient details”. And he is right – but at the expense of several high-profile deaths and countless near-misses and incidents of accidental harm, which accessible information could have prevented.
How many, precisely? We are not offered any statistics, but consider this; how many people turn up at A&E who are unconscious, unaccompanied, confused or otherwise unable to communicate and have some sort of life-threatening condition or allergy? Realistically, this is an insignificant problem and if this is the best that HMG can do to justify the £10billion this thing is supposed to cost, then they clearly haven’t done their cost/benefit analysis properly.
Oh, but they can do better:
Inquiries into cases such as those of Penny Campbell, Maria Caldwell, Victoria Climbié and Jonathan Zito all emanate from different parts of the health service. They have one recurring theme: if key information was available at a time when the risk is highest, the vulnerable, the sick and the old would be better protected.
Talk about scraping the barrel. Dragging these cases into the argument is just plain sick. That’s it; bereft of any rational justification for this scheme, they roll out the scare tactics and attempt to pile on some collective guilt into the bargain. Well, I don’t feel guilty and before I left the UK I advised my GP that I wished to opt out. He was sympathetic to my request and expressed his own concerns about the database. It seems as if he is not alone.
We know that patients have concerns about confidentiality and have gone through rigorous processes to ensure that the right levels of security and patient consent are in place. This means that you have an absolute right to opt out of having such an electronic record.
Naturally we have concerns about confidentiality – and with good cause. The government and its agencies have demonstrated remarkable incompetence over the past few years when handling sensitive data; why should this be any different? And, specifically, when a massive central database simply isn’t necessary? As comments to Braunold’s piece point out, there are alternative solutions to the problems she outlines that would be more secure and cost a fraction of the £10Bn of the spine. For example, a smartcard updated at the GP’s surgery when a new medication is prescribed along with relevant care information would be kept by the patient in the event of another medic needing access. Simple, reasonably secure and no need for a database.
But, then, HMG wouldn’t be able to lose it or sell it, would they?
A compulsory National ID card with chip would be excellent for this purpose. /sarcasm
I trust them not. UK Government departments, of whatever stripe, do not seem to understand the words ‘privacy’ or ‘data security’. I’ve opted out (I hope).
I’m sure, but that was not what was being suggested in the comments to the Groan piece. A specific localised form of information that can be carried easily for those who want or need it – and, very specifically – not tied into a database ain’t the same thing as the ID cards/NIR. It could just as easily be a secure USB stick. Or, as I use, an SOS Talisman. The point being; it is a simple and low cost solution to the “problems” that are being used to justify the NHS spine.
Oh, sod off Gillian. Just live and let live.
Simple? Low cost? The arms of state don’t know the meaning of the word.
We neither want nor need an expensive computerised records system that won’t work anyway. Just do the important job of treating people. Then leave them in peace.
There’s a danger in hospitals relying too much on technology – while in A&E recently, the stFf were in a panic because an elderly lady was ‘missing’ and relatives were concerned – it turned out she’d been booked into their section incorrectly. But all the activity centered around trying to find out where she’d gone.
It never occurred to them to question the computer details…
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