Greens slam privacy breach from medical data 'extraction'

7 October 2013

Peter Cranie, the new Green Party Home Affairs spokesperson, has attacked the proposed “extraction” of identifiable medical data from GP surgeries that can then be passed onto private companies.

He said:

“We need people to be informed that their confidential medical records are going to be 'extracted' with GPs unable to continue an age old practice of protecting patient confidentiality. However, there is a legal barrier to this, and under the Data Protection Act, you can object.

“I’m frankly appalled by how non-liberal this coalition policy actually is. It is yet another nail in the traditional liberal values the Liberal Democrats once stood for. Our personal information has increasingly become a commodity to be traded and sold to the highest private sector bidder. That is no way to run a National Health Service or our country.

“I’m asking Green Party members and supporters to back the 2020health campaign to make this an 'opt-in' campaign. You can use Medconfidential’s template letter to personally opt out, but more importantly, if you are reading this you need to share this information as widely as you can to help others to do the same. The Greens will continue to stand up for your rights of medical privacy and confidentiality.

The Pulse has reported that NHS England has now written to all practices in England informing them that they must inform their patients that the care.data programme will soon begin to extract confidential information from GP records. Although the Information Commissioner is advising GP practices of their responsibilities to inform patients that their data will be extracted.

2020health have said that “… that GPs ‘making people aware’ of their personal information being harvested (which will include name, date of birth, postcode etc) has simply amounted to a few notices in the GP practice.”

The Greens are urging members and supporters to share this information as widely as possible via social media and in campaign leaflets over the next eight weeks. Unless people are given clear notice about opting out, then our medical records will become a commodity that we no longer have any control over. 

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