The privacy drive comes after The Telegraph disclosed this week that 13 years of hospital data – covering 47million patients – was sold by the NHS for insurance purposes.
Those vile creatures who wanted all our information uploaded to care.data tried their very hardest to vilify those of us who were rightly, outraged at their plans as scaremongers. But, we aren’t are we? This organisation cannot be trusted – indeed the state in all its forms cannot be trusted – with our personal and private information. The backlash – that they didn’t expect seems to have had an effect in that Jeremy Hunt is making such sales of our personal information illegal.
The NHS will be legally barred from selling personal medical records for insurance and commercial purposes in a new drive to protect patient privacy, the Health Secretary will announce next week.
You won’t often find me favouring new legislation, but on this occasion, I can make an exception. That said, it doesn’t go anything like far enough. Our information should be ours enshrined in law with severe penalties for anyone who breaches our privacy. That means no sharing of our information without express permission. And that foul lobbying group that is working on behalf of big Pharma (and not patients, despite the weaselly name) can go fuck itself.
Of course it doesn’t go far enough. That’s the unofficial mantra for every piece of legislation that our incompetent “representatives” ever pass; “Miles too far, or not far enough.” As a body of people whose primary role is to approve/pass/amend legislation they somehow manage to achieve the complete opposite of whatever their basic aims are every single time. I guess it’s inevitable, really. Politicians may lie to us with their words, citing laudable aims for their proposed initiatives, but their actions, in the form of the actual legislation they pass, like all actions, never lie. The truth of their real intentions always becomes plain once the legislation is enacted. No doubt this piece of legislation will be no different. It’ll be riddled with exceptions and “only if” clauses, so that senior NHS managers continue to be allowed to do precisely what they want with patient data.
The joke is that it would be oh-so-easy to stop this misuse of data in its tracks – remove the ability for the individuals who authorise the sale/release of such data to hide behind the NHS in lawsuits. So that if a patient discovers that their data has been shared, then they can sue “Mr X” of such-and-such hospital or such-and-such practice, rather than suing the whole NHS as an organisation. Then, “Mr X” would have to stump up the legal costs (hard for an individual to do, easy for a large organisation with, probably, a big legal department already installed), and any damages/penalties imposed. That, in and of itself, would force all those little “Mr X’s” in the Health Service to think twice before cavalierly sending sheaves of patient information off to the highest bidder.
I’ve just signed the opt-out form at my local surgery – or at least filled in a scrappy A5 photocopy from a pile on the reception desk.
There was no box to put it into, so I handed it to the receptionist. She accepted it with a distinct lack of enthusiasm and an expression that suggested that its next stop might well be the round green filing cabinet on the floor.
It’s a worrying thought that an opt-out system is only as reliable as the staff responsible for passing on your wishes.
I emailed the practice manager and got an emailed confirmation back from her, so I’m reasonably comfortable that it has happened. Well, as comfortable as is possible…