There’s a Surprise…

Care.Data is a danger to patients’ records.

But the risk assessment by NHS England, the body behind the scheme, warns that patients could be “re-identified” if database data is combined with other information.

It says: “While there is a privacy risk that the analysts granted access to these pseudonymised flows could potentially re-identify patients maliciously by combining the pseudonymised data with other available datasets (a technique known as a jigsaw attack) such an attack would be illegal and would be subject to sanction by the Information Commissioner’s Office.”

The report also warns that patients could suffer and the overall quality of data held could be eroded. “The extraction of personal confidential data from providers without consent carries the risk that patients may lose trust in the confidential nature of the health service,” it says.

Indeed. Opt out. Opt out now while you still can.

The risk assessment emerged after NHS statistics, revealed over the weekend, showed that health services were losing or breaching the safety of 2,000 patient records every day. More than 2?million serious data breaches by the NHS have been logged since the start of 2011, the figures reveal, with records dumped in landfill sites, left in shops and even sold on eBay.

And the charlatans are still insisting that our information will be safe.

Last week the Royal College of General Practitioners — which represents 46,000 GPs — said there was a “crisis of public confidence” over plans which have not been properly communicated to the public.

You don’t say. I have opted out. Have you? If you want to maintain the confidentiality of your doctor/patient records, then opting out is the only solution. That the information may be of use to third parties is nether here nor there – it’s none of their damned business. It is up to us to keep it that way, because the NHS won’t.

Incidentally, has anyone received one of these mythical leaflets that are being “sent to every home” because the Longrider household certainly hasn’t received one.

10 Comments

  1. I have opted out already. We did receive a leaflet and now the whole family has opted out too. They sometimes think I’m just a ranting old git but when they saw the implications they soon signed the form.

      • “…trying to sneak it in below the radar…”

        That’s been the standard MO of all parties for at least the last 25 years…

  2. I am still trying to find out how I keep my 30 years of records out of their hands, considering I have no longer a “G.P” to complain to.

    Any one else tried this from outside of Britain?

  3. “Incidentally, has anyone received one of these mythical leaflets that are being “sent to every home” because the Longrider household certainly hasn’t received one.”

    I don’t think so, but the amount of political junk I’ve been receiving seems to have slowly been increasing since the last election.

    For example I now get monthly, full colour, shiny magazines from the local council and the county council telling me how amazing they are and how evil the Tories are.

    Their answer to why they’re producing these magazines at the same time as complaining about cuts was that it’s important for us little people to know how amazing our masters are.

    So if I did get anything from the NHS, chances are it went in the bin with the rest of the political rubbish.

  4. No leaflet received here, but there was a warning printed on my prescription. Got my record tagged when I last went to the surgery.

  5. yes recieved one only noticed it as i had been made aware by yourself and other blogs so was looking for it it is designed to look like junk mail and yes i have opted out

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