NHS Alliance calls for debate on care records

The organisation representing primary care trusts is calling for an urgent public debate about the consent model for the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS).

The NHS Alliance says the government has so far failed to consult the public about their views on the consent and confidentiality issues surrounding electronic records and claims failure to do so could jeopardise the whole project.

Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance and a GP in Cullompton, Devon, said the promised public information campaign on the issues had yet to begin despite the fact that the first summary records were due to be uploaded to the Spine within a few months.

He told EHI Primary Care: “If patients are not informed about this and it’s suddenly sprung on them they are going to think big brother is out to get them rather than being reassured about what is involved.”

The NHS Alliance said patients have the right to know about the proposed changes to their health records and the planned safeguards and are also entitled to expect a clear statement as to who might have access to their records and in what circumstances.

Dr Dixon added: “As well as patients there’s quite a lot of clinicians who know nothing about this which shows what the problems are. There are too many boffins discussing things behind closed doors rather than consulting those who stand to gain from it.”

Michael Sobanja, NHS Alliance chief executive, suggested the government could use the same consultation methods it adopted last year ahead of the publication of the white paper on care outside hospital.

He added: “It is time the NHS got this issue into the public domain. Perhaps we need to use the same sort of discussion methods used last autumn for the Our Health, Our Say consultation. This is certainly an issue on which the views of patients and the population at large need to be taken into account.”

Results of a MORI poll on the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) released by Connecting for Health two weeks ago showed that one in four doctors and one in three nurses have still never heard of NPfIT.