care.data
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NHS: Matt Hancock Still Doesn’t Tell You How Your Data Is Used – December 2019
Since our last update, and our first update in 2014, what a Data Usage Report should contain has reached consensus. The NHS has made some progress – not that you as patients will have seen any of it – and while NHS Digital calls it a Statement, rather than a Report, that is probably a… Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin, 7th September 2018
7 September 2018 — medConfidential Once more, a big thank you to everyone who confirmed to us receipt of the letter about the ‘conversion’ of your Type-2 objection to the National Data Opt-out. We are also grateful to those who shared the letter of apology for the appalling TTP error that led to 150,000 patients’ opt-outs Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin, 8th June 2018
The UK’s new Data Protection Act, which implements the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation, came into force on 25th May. Significant changes are underway, but how much will change in the NHS? Continue reading
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medConfidential Summer Roundup, 21st July 2017
21 July 2017 — medConfidential A longer version of this newsletter is available on our website. Before everyone starts their summer, here are a few ‘tied-up loose ends’ that had previously been left dangling. Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin, 21st April 2017
21 April 2017 — medConfidential Though the political focus is on the General Election, the ‘STP shuffle’ remains highly significant. Whatever the result in June, both funding and decision-making for health and care services will be increasingly devolved to local areas. Continue reading
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What does the NHS do with your data?
Although the Government has yet to issue the necessary CAG Regulations; or ‘one strike and you’re out’ sanctions for data misuse or abuse; has failed to close the “promotion of health” (i.e. Pharma marketing) and commercial re-use loophole; still hasn’t put the National Data Guardian on a proper statutory footing, let alone responded to the… Continue reading
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Do you want GP records shared, even if you’ve opted out?
Care.data may be gone, but Jeremy Hunt is asking whether you want to keep your opt out of your medical records leaving your GP’s practice. Will you tell him what you think? Continue reading
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Scrap the sale of our medical records!
The government review into the care.data scheme was published earlier this month and it recommended the scheme we fought so hard against be scrapped. This sounds like a victory, but buried in the report is a new worrying scheme to sell our medical records to big corporations. One of the schemes to replace care.data is… Continue reading
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We say NO to Care.data
A majority of 38 Degrees members support the idea of sharing anonymised data for life-saving medical research – as long as we can be convinced that the data is kept securely. But we are united in our opposition to this data being shared with profit-making companies, for any purpose. Continue reading
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Care.data: They never give up
The government is trying to push through the plan that would allow private companies to access our personal medical data and increase privatisation of the NHS. But together, we could stop it. Continue reading
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The NHS sells you and your soul
This week saw the UK’s largest online pharmacy, Pharmacy2U, fined £130,000 for concealing its sale of names and addresses of NHS patients to quacks and charlatans. Quite literally – the companies who bought patients details were selling “alternative” treatments and lottery scams. Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin, 17 July 2015: care.data – Are you their guinea-pig?
medConfidential has been asking since last October for this information to be published, so that people can know if they and their family are to be guinea-pigs for ‘care.data round 3’. Some patients may also have questions as to why they have been volunteered in this way – so might some GPs – and we… Continue reading
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care.data equals chaos.data
Absent explicit instruction from the Secretary of State, it is now clear that NHS England is just going to keep on making the chaos worse. 16 months after it was “paused”, care.data is resurfacing in a way that gives some insight into the shambolic mess it is still in. Continue reading
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NHS: care.data’s big post-election question
NHS England kept the opt-out problem secret for over a year – even while it was sending out the junk-mail leaflets last January / February, saying the choice existed. Then it hid the problem for another 10 months, before passing the buck to HSCIC last November without even telling them the size of the problem.… Continue reading
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Marketing2U – has your health information been sold to direct marketers?
For years, we’ve had credible reports of highly accurate marketing that could only be based on health records. Now reports in the media have revealed “a nice little trade” in your health records – and that’s the Information Commissioner’s description, not ours. Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin 21 March 2015
While the Government and NHS England still refuse to rule out the commercial re-use of your medical information, their commercial cronies have lobbied the Office of National Statistics to consult on commercial, speculative and secret access to the unprotected data that ONS holds. Continue reading
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NHS Care.data soon to become active
Care.data – the scheme that would give our personal medical data to private companies. It’s being rolled out in just a few weeks’ time. But 92% of 38 Degrees members think we should get the scheme stopped until we can make sure our health data won’t end up in private hands. Continue reading
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medConfidential Bulletin 10 October 2014
Now the pathfinder areas have been announced, we are pushing to see exactly what patients (and GPs) will be told. In the meanwhile, if you do have concerns about care.data and if you haven’t done so already, our advice continues to be to opt out now. N.B. If you opted out of care.data earlier this… Continue reading
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Three crucial safeguards for medical records proposed by leading voices on care.data By Caroline Malloy
Public health professor Allyson Pollock has called on parliament to pass three crucial amendments in next week’s care.data debate to ensure public health, not commercial interest, is at the heart of the new NHS IT system. Continue reading
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The future of care.data hangs in the balance By Jane Fae
The future of care.data hangs in the balance. In the last week, rival proposals from government and by critics, have offered parliament radically different diagnoses – and cures – for the malaise now afflicting the scheme. In the end, though, the question remains: is this all too little, too late? Can care.data recover from here? Continue reading
The New Dark Age 