[News] NHS records to be sold to third-parties

FatSuperman · Jun 4, 2021

If you have not heard about this, please read the following article. The government is planning to have all GP records collected into a single source, and then use that data pool for a vareity of reasons. Including selling it for commercial reasons. You can opt out if you print out a form and take it to your GP (ridiculous) by June 23rd (ridiculous). Otherwise, everything you have ever shared with your GP will be available for sale to god-knows who - remember this includes anything you have said in the past or may in the future. Bear in mind that if god-forbid we end up with privatised healthcare, insurers will know all of this history, it may significantly affect your future self, or your children, etc.

I'm not making political statements here. I'm just suggesting that if you don't want your current and future information sold, then you might want to opt out.
https://www.ft.com/content/9fee812f-6975-49ce-915c-aeb25d3dd748

Here is a petition. **** knows why it is addressed to Jeremy Hunt though
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...nk&share=85e42b22-0de6-4f52-be1a-699b0a2d6811

Peace & love x

vegster · Jun 4, 2021

Sad but, it was always going to come to this, the Tories only exist to find ways of making more money at the expense of everything we hold dear. NHS records are a goldmine for scientific research, for marketing and for insurance purposes. Remember " Under capitalism, a tree has no value until it is chopped down "

Is it PotG? · Jun 4, 2021

Worries me not, might get some good deals via the post.

No different from singing up on something like Initiative Q.

Acker79 · Jun 4, 2021

https://nhs-prod.global.ssl.fastly....lanning-and-research/type-1-opt-out-form.docx is the link in the FT article to the form you need to fill in.

There's an article in the guardian from a GP about it: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/gp-nhs-digital-data-patients-records-england

And one from inews: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/nhs-data-shared-third-parties-weeks-opt-out-gps-worried-1028042

Stat Brother · Jun 4, 2021

My internal monologue read the thread title in a surprised tone.

TBH the only surprise in this is that they haven't been sold already. :down:

CliveWalkerWingWizard · Jun 4, 2021

FatSuperman said:
If you have not heard about this, please read the following article. The government is planning to have all GP records collected into a single source, and then use that data pool for a vareity of reasons. Including selling it for commercial reasons. You can opt out if you print out a form and take it to your GP (ridiculous) by June 23rd (ridiculous). Otherwise, everything you have ever shared with your GP will be available for sale to god-knows who - remember this includes anything you have said in the past or may in the future. Bear in mind that if god-forbid we end up with privatised healthcare, insurers will know all of this history, it may significantly affect your future self, or your children, etc.

I'm not making political statements here. I'm just suggesting that if you don't want your current and future information sold, then you might want to opt out.
https://www.ft.com/content/9fee812f-6975-49ce-915c-aeb25d3dd748

Here is a petition. **** knows why it is addressed to Jeremy Hunt though
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...nk&share=85e42b22-0de6-4f52-be1a-699b0a2d6811

Peace & love x

I think this is potentially very dangerous, There has been very little publicity. The government are making it difficult to opt out, having to print out a form and take it to your gp.

Is this the only petition? It only has 300 or so names signed up.

FatSuperman · Jun 4, 2021

Is it PotG? said:
Worries me not, might get some good deals via the post.

No different from singing up on something like Initiative Q.

It doesn't worry me personally, and I think in general it is good to pool the data and use it for research, analysis. Probably lots of value in strategy & planning at a macro level.

But selling the data is a terrible idea. This includes records of abuse, criminal records, some real personal stuff. Once it's out of the NHS it is out of control. It could end up anywhere.

If you post all your private medical records on this thread, I can get you signed up for lots of great postal / email offers if you like?

bluenitsuj · Jun 4, 2021

You can also opt out online on the NHS website. Takes 30 seconds once logged in.

WATFORD zero · Jun 4, 2021

Is it PotG? said:
Worries me not, might get some good deals via the post.

No different from singing up on something like Initiative Q.

Maybe we should have all personal information, medical, financial, geographical, political etc etc sold to commercial enterprises. That would give us REALLY good deals and I can't imagine any problems with it :facepalm:

You can opt out online here

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/

Is it PotG? · Jun 4, 2021

Dick Swiveller · Jun 4, 2021

bluenitsuj said:
You can also opt out online on the NHS website. Takes 30 seconds once logged in.

Don't think that is correct. There are two opt outs and the one being talked about requires a form taking to your GP.

FatSuperman · Jun 4, 2021

bluenitsuj said:
You can also opt out online on the NHS website. Takes 30 seconds once logged in.

Thanks Blue. Do you mean this one:
https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/manage-your-choice/

Note that there are two types of opt-out, the original 'National Data opt-out', which you can do on that link, or the 'Type 1 opt-out', which is the form you take to your GP. If you only do the national opt out, they will still put your GP records in this new system. They say that they won't share any data (including the GP records) unless there are exemptions... they don't list those exemptions.

Different opt outs:

National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data)
We will collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.

NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you - this includes GP data, or other data we hold, such as hospital data - with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this.

Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)
If you don’t want your identifiable patient data to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both. These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option.

Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)
We will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice. More information about Type 1 Opt-outs is in our GP Data for Planning and Research Transparency Notice, including a form that you can complete and send to your GP practice.

This collection will start on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared with us. We will however still hold the patient data which was shared with us before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out.

Source:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-inf...ice-data-for-planning-and-research#opting-out

Dick Swiveller · Jun 4, 2021

Type 1 opt-out: medical records held at your GP practice
You can also tell your GP practice if you do not want your confidential patient information held in your GP medical record to be used for purposes other than your individual care. This is commonly called a type 1 opt-out. This opt-out request can only be recorded by your GP practice.

Norman Potting · Jun 4, 2021

...And there doesn't seem to be a deadline for opt out according to the NHS website - see

https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

I don't think they have done a very good job in publicising the issue and I am veering toward the "let them have it if can help the NHS"

A1X · Jun 4, 2021

So "patient and doctor confidentiality" is now "patient, doctor and Tesco / Ryanair / Wetherspoons / anyone who fancies buying your data confidentiality"?

Sheebo · Jun 4, 2021

FatSuperman said:
If you have not heard about this, please read the following article. The government is planning to have all GP records collected into a single source, and then use that data pool for a vareity of reasons. Including selling it for commercial reasons. You can opt out if you print out a form and take it to your GP (ridiculous) by June 23rd (ridiculous). Otherwise, everything you have ever shared with your GP will be available for sale to god-knows who - remember this includes anything you have said in the past or may in the future. Bear in mind that if god-forbid we end up with privatised healthcare, insurers will know all of this history, it may significantly affect your future self, or your children, etc.

I'm not making political statements here. I'm just suggesting that if you don't want your current and future information sold, then you might want to opt out.
https://www.ft.com/content/9fee812f-6975-49ce-915c-aeb25d3dd748

Here is a petition. **** knows why it is addressed to Jeremy Hunt though
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petiti...nk&share=85e42b22-0de6-4f52-be1a-699b0a2d6811

Peace & love x

Is it PotG? said:
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So which is blooming true? OP says anything you’ve said to GP - other posts says this isn’t case :shrug:

WATFORD zero · Jun 4, 2021

Is it PotG? said:
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Open Democracy seems to think individuals will be identifiable from the data sold, for example

Is the government telling us the truth about GDPR and our NHS medical data?

Given that ‘Hospital Episode Statistics’ (HES) consists of ‘patient-level’ lifelong medical histories – each row in the data referring to a single person, with every individually-dated hospital event they experienced linked together using a ‘pseudonym’, and containing many other items of data that can act as ‘identifiers’ – it can count as ‘identifiable’ data under the new law and therefore also sensitive personal data, as medConfidential and others have been saying for years – although confusion over the new laws seems to have stretched to the top of NHS Digital, and discussions are ongoing.

Your medical history is like a fingerprint – unique to you, and identifiable by almost trivial means: a mother with two children is over 99% likely to be identifiable from their children's birth dates alone, and a single news report could provide the information required to identify the unfortunate subject’s entire hospital history. A single breach of HES could expose millions of patients’ hospital histories, a disaster orders of magnitude greater than the loss of the HMRC Child Benefit discs in 2009.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/is-government-telling-us-truth-about-gdpr-and-your-nhs-medical-data/

FatSuperman · Jun 4, 2021

Norman Potting said:
...And there doesn't seem to be a deadline for opt out according to the NHS website - see
https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/
I don't think they have done a very good job in publicising the issue and I am veering toward the "let them have it if can help the NHS"

Yes indeed, I wonder why.

It's all REALLY confusing and misleading. I will keep digging and try and find an official (non-FT.com) source that shows that they can indeed link identifiable information with these records, and that they will sell to third-parties, which it does not mention!

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-inf...r-planning-and-research/advice-for-the-public

Is it PotG? · Jun 4, 2021

sheebo said:
So which is blooming true? OP says anything you’ve said to GP - other posts says this isn’t case

As usual in such cases, paranoia and hysteria are not unknown.

The Andy Naylor Fan Club · Jun 4, 2021

I have the NHS App and under its 'What you need to know' it states NSH Digital will never sell your data.
The top line says it's false info that is circulating on social media!

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