CfH clinical lead predicts consensus on consent

Connecting for Health and the medical profession will be able to reach a consensus on the consent model for the NHS Care Records Service, predicts CfH’s GP clinical lead Prof Mike Pringle.

Doctors’ bodies and the NHS IT agency are currently divided over how consent for the NCRS should operate.

The qualified opt out policy adopted by Connecting for Health and approved by government ministers is at odds with a decision taken last month by the ethics committee of the Royal College of General Practitioners that all patients must have the right to opt-in to the sharing of information via the NCRS. The British Medical Association is also calling for an opt-in model.

However an RCGP Council meeting held last weekend (Nov 19) was told that RCGP officers would be meeting with Connecting for Health to discuss the consent model.

Prof Pringle, along with fellow GP clinical lead Dr Gillian Braunold, is working to bring the two sides together.

He told EHI Primary Care that he believes a consensus will be reached. He added: “My personal view is that the distance between the two sides is very small and there’s been a considerable amount of misunderstanding on both sides. I don’t see this as a major showstopper at present.”

Prof Pringle said the clinical leads hope to set up a meeting before Christmas between the ethics committee and other key RCGP officers together with representatives from Connecting for Health including Harry Cayton, the chair of the Care Record Development Board.

The CDRB has been responsible for devising the CfH policy on how consent to the NCRS will operate. Explicit consent will be required for access to Detailed Care Records but not for Summary Care Records.

The CRDB’s proposal, endorsed by ministers, is that a local information campaign will be run in each area before summary records for patients are uploaded to the spine. The campaign will outline patients’ right to opt-out and as patients present opportunistically at their general practice they will also have the opportunity to check their summary record, opt-out or suppress individual items. In addition some diagnoses will not be uploaded including mental health, sexual health and some infections, until and only with explicit consent from patients.

Prof Pringle said he believed the position taken by the BMA was also close to what CfH was proposing.

He added: “Everyone wants the same thing which is for there to be an effective record which promotes patient safety and is available and accessible to support patient care. We also want people to have a stake in how that is shared.

“If you make opting in too difficult lots of people don’t have records and patient safety is compromised but if you don’t widely allow opting out you are undermining patients’ rights. We have to find the best way to meet those two objectives and Connecting for Health needs to be sensitive to the needs of the profession.”

Links

RCGP ethics committee recommends opt-in for NCRS