Care.data is a complete omnishambles, says study into hated scheme

Re: Assumptions

And that it performed admirably.

Well in the short term it has enriched consultants (what large government IT project does not), in the medium term maybe ministers and civil servants may get the sinecures the obviously deserve *hemm hmm). Whether the data will be released to the marketeers remains to be seen.

Re: Assumptions

That's quite the problem, massive inconsistency - the NHS has most stringent IG and data protection in place, depending on where you are, suddenly this crock of... flies in the face of all they've worked for.

I'd be happy to write on this, Ikabai SItal :)

SD

Re: As General Turgidson so wisely said...

Dr Strangelove should be on every ones must watch list.

Re: Change in the law

Health and Social Care Act 2012

but that allows the data to be collated, it doesn't somehow retrospectively grant permission from patients or override decades of common law. Or at least it shouldn't, but most of the judges who would have defended common law have retired.

Re: Change in the law

Also, you (the English) will need to watch for the law reversing that decision.

Re: Change in the law

Sorry the change is in Care Act 2014:

"Information Centre may do so only if it considers that disseminating the information would be for the purposes of—

(a)the provision of health care or adult social care, or

(b)the promotion of health.”

Not exactly a cast- iron safeguard is it!

Re: Good medical practice

Nice to hear your practice got in touch, mine didn't.

From memory I used the faxyourgp service, and I did get a call a few weeks later from my practice.

They told me they had received my request but were not sure what I wanted.

I explained over the phone to them what it was about and they said I would have to come in and fill out a form.

So they have a form but don't know what it's about, hmm...

Re: Good medical practice

"My local practice mailed out forms allowing you to opt out of everything"

As far as you know. Your data is still extracted though. And your opt-out only lasts as long as "they" allow it to.

Re: Good medical practice

> My local practice mailed out forms allowing you to opt out of everything.

So did mine. With the rider that opting out would mean my electronic prescriptions would no longer be delivered to the pharmacy of my choice (or any other). So in order to get my diabetes meds I'd have to put in my repeat request as usual, go back two days later, pick up the prescription forms, wait for them to be signed (30 minutes to two hours) then take them to the pharmacy (and wait 30 minutes for them to be filled).

Do-able but a pain in the fundament. Especially given that I work..

Politicians are personally liable

But their liability is restricted to reelection times - if their approval rating is bad, they don't get enough votes and are not reelected.

You will never get a law allowing for the condemnation of a politician over wasted money - not if the money was wasted following official procedures. If that happened, nobody would present themselves for election anymore because there would always be someone to think that a given project was a waste of money, ergo lawsuits all the time.

Re: Data protection

I received the letter telling me about it. In the data protection section it said something like 'we have no plans to share your information...at this time'. I opted out, but to do that I had to go to my local doctors surgery in person.

You need to do more than that: read the small print.

I did and, as a result, sent separate opt-out requests to my GP surgery and to the hospitals I've been treated in and so who hold (part of) my medical history. The hospital personnel understood exactly why I was contacting them and registered my opt-out without questioning it.

Everybody who cares about the privacy of their medical data, i.e. not letting it get into the hands of the insurance industry, needs to do the same.