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 30 August 2008 15:38 BST

Database threatened by GPs' concerns

Tuesday, 21 Nov 2006 10:44
Survey finds doctors fear new IT system could risk patient confidentiality

Health In Focus 

GPs are threatening to abandon a new national database system over concerns about patient confidentiality, a survey has found.

Around 50 per cent of GPs who responded to the Guardian newspaper survey said they will not follow government instructions to automatically put patient records on the database.

Known as Spine, the database will store the information of 50 million patients.

Although the survey found that 51 per cent of GPs and 65 per cent of hospital doctors thought the system would enable doctors and nurses "to make better decisions by having easy access to a complete up-to-date record of clinical information", four out of five doctors think the confidentiality of their patients' records could be put at risk of bribery, hackers and blackmail.

The new system has been designed to upload information from a GPs computer automatically, without asking the patients first. Just 11 per cent of GPs and 18 per cent of hospital doctors would be prepared to upload details without the patient's consent.

The British Medical Association told the Guardian that "we share the concerns of the GPs responding to the poll".

"We are worried patients are not going to have all the information they need to know what is going on with their records," it said. "That is why we are in favour of a system that seeks their explicit consent."

A spokesman for Connecting for Health, the agency responsible for the NHS' £12 billion IT investment, said: "The law constrains how a national database must operate, but it does not prevent the creation of such a database, nor does it prevent the merger of existing databases for efficiency and safety reasons, as is being done to create the central summary clinical record.

"The Department of Health believes that this will be of great benefit to a great majority of people, improving healthcare and preventing unnecessary deaths."End of story


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