As previously advised on this website, the caredata system compromises the privacy of all NHS patrienst in England.
Identifiable medical information will be extracted from the GP record of every man, woman and child in England; this data will be centralised, linked with information taken from other parts of the NHS and made available to an open-ended array of organisations and companies for ill-defined purposes.
Claims that this is not the case are misleading to say the least, because an individuals NHS number will be included with their medical record data, in addition to the individual's postcode.
The system is not yet fully launched. Now a new major problem has been uncovered, reports Medconfidential.org with regard to the opt-out objection code used in the Caredata computer system. The system problem identified, potentially affects the whole country.
As Medconfidential explains on its website:
'care.data itself is currently limited to just four ‘pathfinder’ areas – and no data has been extracted yet, reports the website. The four areas are:
Leeds (3 CCGs: West / North / South and East)
Blackburn with Darwen CCG
West Hampshire CCG
Somerset CCG
Due to a mistake with the ‘Type 2′ (9Nu4) objection code, everyone who opted out with it will need to be contacted to confirm the details of a new, as yet unspecified, arrangement. Opting out now should mean you are contacted in that group.
But because the codes have not been extracted, HSCIC has no way to know whose data to prevent passing on to its customers. Data releases resumed last summer; you can see the organisations which have received data in HSCIC’s quarterly Data Release Register
Unfortunately at this point no-one, including HSCIC itself, can tell you if your data has been released – which is one example of why we’ve been pushing for personalised Data Usage Reports With those in place, you would know.’
However, to date some 302 organisations have requested to be provided with the private medical records of all NHS patients that are available.
These organizations included numerous universities, local council authorities, and private healthcare companies.
Some of the private companies requesting access to your personal medical records are:
Ardentia Ltd, McKinsey and Co, iCaps Health Ltd, Compufiles Systems Limited, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP
You can download the latest register of those organisations and private healthcare companies requesting NHS patients private medical records from here
If you would like to opt out from your private medical records being sold off, forms to do so are available from the E-Library Database.
Medconfidential say they are working to ensure that NHS England honours all opt outs and that its promise that this will not affect your direct care is true.
Medconfidential run an email service which you can sign up to If you want to be kept up to date with what’s going on, and with facts you can act on. Sign up here
Background information on Medconfidential:
Since March 2014, medConfidential has sat on the care.data Advisory Group (CDAG).
Having been one of the leading critics of abuses of NHS patient consent and confidentiality – in particular the care.data scheme – since we formed in early 2013, medConfidential continues to engage with NHS England, HSCIC, the Department of Health and other responsible bodies in pursuit of our stated goal; to ensure that every data flow in the NHS and care system is the best balance of consensual, safe and transparent.
Given NHS England’s public acknowledgement that things had gone so terribly wrong, we decided to engage with the care.data Advisory Group on the condition that meeting minutes and papers would be made public. We hope this will prove to be a constructive way to ensure all future plans meet the demands of patient confidentiality, enhance the protections around legitimate uses of data and provide the confidence that comes from proper transparency.
Source: Medconfidential / HSCIC
See also: Opting Out Of Your Private Medical Data Harvesting By Government
