Now NHS Digital is going after data on private healthcare too

Tuesday 26th June 2018 17:56 GMT Richard Jones 1

Not Just a Private Hospital Point

I wish it was possible to load the stats in some way to allow those who deal with more acute, nearer to EOL, very serious ill patients, etc. received a weighting so that they do not have to complain their states are worse than somewhere dealing with well patients for a grease and service.

I have been treated in both types both as a privat patient and NHS and have to say that I did not find the two in anyway similar. (That ignores the time I was given someone else's diagnosis of terminal kidney cancer, least said soonest mended.)

3 0 Reply
Tuesday 26th June 2018 18:08 GMT Doctor Syntax

"The body has just launched a campaign promoting this to coincide with a new patient data opt-out scheme and new EU data protection laws"

An opt-out scheme or EU data protection laws? Surely it must be one or the other, it can't be both.

3 0 Reply
1. Tuesday 26th June 2018 18:59 GMT Gordon 10
  
  They mean both are recent launched. GDPR went active and NHS Digital took over the former care.data opt out registration.
  
  https://digital.nhs.uk/national-data-opt-out
  
  1 0 Reply
  1. Tuesday 26th June 2018 21:36 GMT cbars
    
    I had a letter delivered, which cheerfully announced that as I had previously opted out of care.data I was being automatically opted-out of [something else] - thanks to GDPR. This doesn't fit with my understanding of GDPR, and highlights the 'modern' approach the policy makers are taking by using opt-outs:
    
    We'll assume you're happy for us to what we want, unless you research our policy and explicitly tell us not to do something. At which point we'll do as you ask [for as long as we feel like it] (and unless you keep opting-out... we'll get you eventually)
    
    4 1 Reply
    1. Wednesday 27th June 2018 05:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
      
      opting out of the new opt-in
      
      I too received that letter.
      
      I suspect the point of sending you the letter is that unless you now specifically tell them that you want to opt-out again then they will now ignore your previous opt-out and opt you back in again by default, so that they can sell your soul to Google DeepMind.
      
      5 2 Reply
      1. Wednesday 27th June 2018 15:01 GMT g00se2
        
        Re: opting out of the new opt-in
        
        I too received that letter.
        
        I hope you're wrong or i didn't read it carefully enough. I thought it was stating that my opt-out status was continuing
        
        0 0 Reply
  2. Wednesday 27th June 2018 10:13 GMT Peter Gathercole
    
    care.data
    
    I wish that people would stop conflating care.data with sharing data within the NHS.
    
    Care.data was all about sharing supposedly anonymized data from the NHS outside of the NHS, with people like medical research organizations, drug companies and insurance companies.
    
    Whilst I have no problem with the first of these, I have some concerns with the second, and violent objections to the last, and there are other companies outside of all three of these categories that were being considered for access.
    
    It was demonstrated that the anonymization could easily be undone by combining the anonymous data with well known data and information from social media.
    
    I'm all for making the NHS more efficient by sharing data across different groups within the NHS, because then for example my son would not have arrived at his booked appointment at hospital for a pretty rare eye condition (and thus easily identified from this and the region that the records were for) only to find that all of his previous records had been misplaced, and could he tell the consultant what he was there for!
    
    2 0 Reply
Tuesday 26th June 2018 20:25 GMT Anonymous Coward

No-one is considering the small-practice private doctor

Not everyone can go to the NHS, and of those who can, not everyone wants to, or has already tried the NHS without success and now finds that private practice offers the diagnosis and treatment that deals with their problem. Foreigners in particular find it hard to get proper NHS treatment. Some aren't entitled; others find it hard to get accurate diagnosis of conditions rare in Britain, yet common overseas, like malaria or bilharzia. A great number, for whatever reason, including language difficulties, simply aren't on the NHS radar, no NHS number, nada.

Now, practically, how are we small practice people to give our data to these NHS IT bods? Legally, we are on dodgy grounds. Morally, just as dodgy. We are responsible for our client data, not this over-managed behemoth within the civil service.

I can see how it is going to go: they'll want 'required' fields to be completed with data we don't possess because we don't, in our little practice, need it. Small practices have to buy their software; they have to pay techies to maintain secure servers on which to run it; they have to backup the data securely; they have to have it to hand, immediately, when the patient turns up. Some of the software is built for use by medical professionals with thousands of medicines pre-loaded into a prescription database; pre-coded diagnoses; fully-integrated consultation, prescription, diagnosis and etc databases. Others are simpler, modified CRM systems, and none of them, none, will be compatible with the NHS system.

This is an exercise designed to drive the small private doctor out of business.

1 5 Reply
Wednesday 27th June 2018 08:22 GMT John Smith 19

TBH I suspect some privite hospitals are pretty s**t

and having their stats on file would help spot who are charging a shedload of cash and then dumping any problem cases back on the NHS.

But no. Patient data transfer sounds very dodgy to m.

6 1 Reply
Wednesday 27th June 2018 08:24 GMT Anonymous Coward

One person one set of information

My wife recently had treatment that started in the public sector, moved to private and then back to public due to the incompetent nature of private healthcare for complex issues. The added insult was that all the data collected by tests in the private sector had to be collected again as they don't talk. I think this is a long overdue move.

2 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 27th June 2018 09:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Re: One person one set of information
  
  Yes, I've had the same. The worst was when the private health provider (insurance) decided that I was now an emergency NHS case, and I had to start all the tests again in the NHS system - waiting weeks for MRI's etc.
  
  I'm all for sharing of patient information within the health providers, just not the sharing with all and sundry, and so I am currently opted out - but having read previous comments and having not received a letter, I'm going to have to check.
  
  1 0 Reply
Wednesday 27th June 2018 08:32 GMT Anonymous Coward

My consultants will be happy

They have more excuse to use NHS resources for their private work, they already use NHS Medical Secretaries and clinical systems when it suits them.

1 0 Reply
1. Wednesday 27th June 2018 13:08 GMT IsJustabloke
  
  Re: My consultants will be happy
  
  For which said NHS resources are paid.
  
  I have a heart problem that's being monitored privately. The various tests are administered by NHS staff in an NHS hospital, using NHS equipment. .
  
  The tests are done out of normal working hours ie evening or saturday mornings.
  
  The Dr is paid for his time, the nurses are paid for their time, the hospital is paid for the use of the equipment, equipment that would otherwise be sitting around unused.
  
  When I was admitted for an overnight stay, I stayed in a private wing that had it's own staff and equipment
  
  This was explained to me by said NHS Dr and NHS nurse and a hospital administrator when I asked the question.
  
  Literally everyone wins; I win , they win, the NHS wins from me having private medical. Actually my GP doesn't win because he needs to see me to refer me but he's the only one
  
  2 2 Reply
Wednesday 27th June 2018 15:04 GMT Anonymous Coward

I recently had a private MRI (rather than a long wait), the NHS consultant had access to that.

Later when the NHS consultant said a repeat blood test was unnecessary I enquired about getting that done privately and was advised that the result would be visible to the consultant whether I liked it or not.

I was enrolled in the 100,000 genome project because my cancer was "interesting". I had to spend 30 mins with a nurse to read through documentation and sign in about 10 places to say I'd understood the data would be shared - this is for research to improve future outcomes for everyone. I think if you're getting treatment, such as I have had, which would cost tens of thousands if done privately the least you can do is make the resulting data available to the wider community. Maybe that will help a drug company produce a new and profitable treatment and they might make £££ based in part on "my" data. So what? they'll have paid NHS for access to the anonymised data. It may be possible to identify a marker in my genome that identifies a genetic predisposition to the same cancer, so a future screening programme could result in precautionary advice or treatment, earlier diagnosis and treatment, access to a new drug.

1 1 Reply