The stupid thing was
That if there had been a legislative guarantee that this data will not be sold on to third parties or made available to anyone other than public research institutions there would have been far less outcry.
But because they got data-greedy and wanted more than the basic goal of joined up records between GP's and hospitals it became a shambles.
If they had done it in stages there could have been an informed debate about each stage as and when it was proposed.