Healthcare - July 2010
The NHS IT Programme - Coalition to continue roll-out of
Summary Care Records
The Coalition Government has recently
announced that, contrary to indications by both the Conservative
and Liberal Democrat parties prior to the General Election; it
plans to proceed with the implementation of the Summary Care
Records database which recently began in England.
The Summary Care Records system is part of the
national broadband network linking NHS sites which will provide the
structure for access to electronic health records of all NHS
patients. Certain patient information is uploaded to a
central database where it will be accessible by hospital staff, GPs
and other health professionals involved in patient care.
Patients are entitled to opt out of the scheme. The Summary
Care Records database is intended to help healthcare professionals
make faster and more appropriate clinical decisions by providing
them with access to a central record of patients’ medical
information, e.g. details regarding patients’ drug history,
allergies and adverse reactions to drugs. Such information is
particularly valuable in emergencies.
The system has many potential benefits,
however the scheme has led to fears that patients’ personal data
will be accessible too widely and could be misused or lost,
infringing patients’ privacy and rights under data protection
legislation. There are also fears that the Summary Care
Records database includes omissions and inaccuracies, making it
difficult for health professionals to have confidence in it as a
comprehensive and reliable source of information.
In a move that has dismayed privacy
campaigners, the Government will continue to roll-out the database
despite promising that centralisation of NHS medical records would
be stopped. Simon Burns, Minister for Health, suggested in a
parliamentary answer published on 3 June that Summary Care Records
are here to stay, albeit subject to a number of caveats. In
answer to the question of whether it would become Government policy
to end uploading of medical data to the database, Mr Burns replied
as follows:
“Uploading of information to the
summary care record will continue to take place, where the relevant
general practitioner (GP) practices and primary care trusts (PCTs)
agree that patients have been adequately informed about the
process, and properly enabled to opt out should they wish, and
where GP practices and PCTs are satisfied that data are of an
appropriate quality for sharing.”
The British Medical Association (“BMA”) feels
that the Summary Care Record system is imperfect and its
implementation has been rushed. On 9 June, the Chairman of
the British Medical Association GPs Committee advocated the review
of two NPfIT (National Programme for IT) schemes – Choose and Book
and the Summary Care Record.
In a speech to the Local Medical Committees
Conference, Dr Lawrence Buckman highlighted the dangers of
compromising patient care in a bid to save money in the delivery of
healthcare and called for a review of what he referred to as the
“the current wrongly consented version of the Summary Care
Record.”
Although it seems likely that the Summary Care
Record system will survive, the exact form that it will take is
currently unclear. In any event, Summary
Care Records are likely to continue to prove controversial in the
short term.
Clare Sellars,
Partner
Weightmans LLP