Are the NHS selling our personal information?
The reason i ask is i now have my blood tests and other communications sent to me via the NHS App.
Recently i have been receiving unsolicited emails from Haematology sites with offers to help with certain health issues and coincidently these are the areas where a red marker has been flagged up on my blood tests.
I was led to believe that signing up would mean that if I was taken ill anywhere in Britain, doctors treating me would have speedy access to my health records. I did not want to have private health vultures accessing those records.
Doctors anywhere in England can access your GP health records, the just have to ask your permission. They can't, however, access health records held by different hospitals as far as I know.
I asked my consultant and he said could access the whole of wide area around , this when I told him I had been in another hospital with PE. That doesn't mean that they do that though. I think records should be central but definitely not available to firms to contact you like this .
Thank you for that information Jaybird. Although I'm not under any consultant it's useful to know. I do wonder how many are aware that they can opt out of the information sharing. They say that nothing confidential is shared but I am very sceptical about that.
Shouldn’t laugh but my doctor is so lazy and writes down any thing he makes up rather than give his patients any help the NHS would have trouble working out what’s wrong with half of us. I’m impressed you’ve even been told to go online that’s very advanced for my local practice here. Just ignore junk as one does with junk mail through the letter box . 👍🏻👍🏻
A few seconds after logging out of an 'askmygp' session, I received an email offering an NHS Covid passport. As it was, literally, on the back of a bona fide NHS session, I almost fell for it until it got to the page where they wanted my debit card details "for identification purposes". It was a scam and I bailed out, sharpish.
This was in the midst of the Covid lockdown. The timing was rather too co-incidental for my liking, though I felt it was more likely to do with cybercriminal activity than any dubious practise on the part of the NHS.
My experience of NHS specialists over the years is that they barely have time to wade through the data to read what they need to know, let alone study everything that is on my file. It does make for an interesting consultation when the specialist is continually rotating between me and peering at his/her computer screen!
Nonetheless, I got wind of the NHS data-sharing move earlier on and opted out. Information is king and I prefer to remain monarch of my own medical data.
That's really pretty shocking MrB, I suppose that they must be. I also opted out from my gp surgery sharing my details back in September or October when the deadline was although I'm still unsure if it was the correct thing to do. Yes it stops them passing on very private records on but perhaps also prevents other health organisations in UK from sharing our health records ie if we should fall ill anywhere other than at home
There was a great deal of debate about this in June 2021. This is a link to the Full Fact site that has further links. fullfact.org/health/nhs-data/
I opted out as I had/have little trust in our government’s capacity for transparency.
Apparently, the NHS is a great database for medical research as it includes large numbers of a population. Unfortunately, I can’t find all the stuff I read when coming to my decision.
I think therefore that it’s a fairly safe bet that our data is being shared and paid for under the guise of administrative costs etc.
Hope that helps
How Long is the Waiting List for Spirometry?
Update on my breathing difficulties 
New to this forum-joined today 25/6/2022
Loosing weight and getting very thin!
nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-... this answers your question Mr B. I opted out of this information sharing through my GP surgery.
Me too Carole
I can't open the link
No me neither now Pat, thanks for pointing that out. If anyone interested types into their computer search engine 'NHS sharing your health records' the relevant page should come up.
No prob x
You have to opt out it’s wrong
I agree Balloo