I wasn't going to post this as it could be thought political - at one level or another - but the short time available to exercise your right to decide made me choose to post rather than not.
You have until 23rd June 2021.
GPs warn over plans to share patient data with third parties in England
Doctors say NHS Digital’s proposals could erode the relationship between them and their patients
Doctors have warned that plans to pool medical records on to a database and share them with third parties could erode the relationship between them and patients.
The warning came as the Royal College of GPs wrote to NHS Digital urging it to better communicate with the public about the plans and their options for opting out.
Critics have voiced concerns over the NHS Digital plans, which would put the medical histories of more than 55 million patients into a database available to academic and commercial third parties for research and planning purposes.
Privacy campaigners have already spoken out against the proposals, which include sharing anonymised mental and sexual health data, criminal records, and more sensitive information. The records would be scraped from every patient in England registered to a GP clinic by NHS Digital, which runs the country’s healthcare IT systems.
I hadn't realised the last data grab ( care.data ) was so long ago - 2014.
What worries me is how this will affect children. I read about some parents opting themselves out of care.data but not their children. And I couldn't understand the logic of that decision at all. Children grow up to be adults too! And they can make their own decisions later in life. But not if their data has been stolen already! Once it has gone you can't claw it back!
You are right that you can choose to opt in using the form. But, as I understand, there is no obvious reason to opt-in as that is the default if you take no action at all.
Nonetheless, I shall reword my post to cover that.
'plans to share patient data with third parties in England' seems to suggest the sharing is just in England, but is the data coming from the whole of the UK?
Thanks for posting the link - is that all I have to do, as it was blinking easy for something that I fundamentally disagree with. I have a text confirmation?
I may be misunderstanding but there seems to be a few different things. The link takes you to the National Data Opt out. I think this is where once data is already with NHS digital you can say “no I don’t want you sharing it on or using it for research or planning” but the one we want, which has a deadline of 23 June is the “type one opt out”. And this is about your data held at your GP not being shared to NHS digital in the first place. This collection starts 1 July. You can ONLY opt out from this by notifying your GP directly with a form. The NHS have a form but then you must post or email that to your GP.
How many times have we read of government wonks who have left data on trains / thrown away in public rubbish bins/ 'accidentally' disclosed...
From a disgusted of Tunbridge Wells perspective: You don't help me with my thyroid issues, I won't help you with your data grab. How's that for you? Because it's good for me
Really glad you posted this, I've been concerned about it since I discovered it a couple of weeks ago, but didn't think to list it here. My main worry is not so much about my private data, more that it seems pretty clear to me that the US health companies will want as much data as they can get to draw up their pricing models as the inevitable sell off of parts of the NHS draws closer and closer. I know there are faults and problems with the NHS, but I don’t want to be part of its privatisation by stealth. I've written to my MP about it, no reply as yet.
Does this mean a 3rd party would not only have access to your health issues and treatment but also your phone numbers, address and personal identification numbers? The whole world is going bonkers!
No - they would not have phone, address, etc., but there have been several cases where there has been identification of people when it was not intended.
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