Wes Streeting is to unveil plans for portable medical records giving every NHS patient all their information stored digitally in one place on Monday, despite fears over breaching privacy and creating a target for hackers.
The health secretary is launching a major consultation on the government’s plans to transform the NHS from “analogue to digital” over the next decade. It will offer “patient passports” containing health data that can be swiftly accessed by GPs, hospitals and ambulance services.
New laws are also set to be introduced on Wednesday to make patient health records available across all NHS trusts in England. It will speed up patient care, reduce repeat medical tests and minimise medication errors, he said.
The digital data bill will standardise information systems across the NHS, making it possible to share electronic records across all parts of the service, and bringing them together in a single patient record on the NHS app.
Streeting moved to allay patients’ fears over “big brother” oversight of private records, telling the Guardian that they would be “protected and anonymised” as the government pursued new technological opportunities.
He also defended the government’s plan to transform healthcare in England by working with big tech and pharma companies to develop new treatments, saying he would get the “best possible deal” for the NHS.
The health secretary told the Guardian the development “will mean the NHS can work hand in hand with the life sciences sector, offering access to our large and diverse set of data”.
He added: “The conversation we’re kicking off today will include questions like how to ensure patients’ data is protected and anonymised – people are up for helping save the NHS, but understandably have concerns about ‘big brother’.
“We will also work through how to get a best possible deal for the NHS in return, whether that’s extra funding, cut-price deals for the latest medicines or priority access, so cutting-edge treatments are available to NHS patients, not just those who can afford to pay.”
But medConfidential, a patient privacy campaign group, said Streeting’s plans would unavoidably create a vulnerable database, the contents of which could then be shared with drug companies.
Furthermore, records could potentially be viewed by any of the NHS’s 1.5 million staff, even if they are not treating the patient.
“Wes Streeting is planning a ’big brother’ database. Your identifiable medical history and all your medical notes will no longer be looked after by doctors and will be controlled by politicians who will decide who they get sold to – which will inevitably be anyone who’ll pay for them,” said Sam Smith, a spokesperson for the group.
He added: “The proposals are a gift to stalkers and creeps who misuse NHS systems to find out the most basic private details that people only tell their doctors, and the government shows no sign of taking the most basic steps to prevent stalkers and creeps getting access.
“Your entire medical history will be readable by anyone with access. And these new mega datastores would be at ever-present risk of hacking.”
A public consultation, initiated by the last government when it considered a similar move and published in May this year, found that 21% of people polled disagreed with the statement that “I trust the NHS to keep my patient data secure”.
Many more – two-thirds of respondents – said they would not want anyone who is not directly treating them to have access to their medical records.
Rosa Curling, the co-executive director of Foxglove, a technology justice campaign group, said: “Opening up NHS data to profit-making companies is a fundamental shift in the critical relationship between patient and doctor, which is based above all on confidentiality and trust.
“Such a seismic change cannot be made without a comprehensive plan to gain the consent and trust of patients, especially when anonymisation has been debunked as an effective means of preserving patient privacy.”
The public are likely to be sceptical about Streeting’s plans, despite the benefits they are intended to provide in terms of better care.
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In the May consultation, large majorities also said they were worried that NHS IT systems could be vulnerable to cyber-attacks (82%) and that the NHS might make mistakes in handling the data (65%). Half (50%) were slightly or strongly concerned that the health service might sell their personal data to companies without their permission.
Of those polled, 69% said they would like to be told if a summary of their GP record is collected nationally, allowing doctors away from home to be able to view their private information.
Writing in the Guardian, Streeting said: “The challenges the NHS faces today are huge, but the opportunities are enormous. The revolution taking place today in science and technology will transform the way we receive healthcare.
“Nye Bevan would have had no idea in 1948, but the model he created makes the NHS the best-placed healthcare system in the world to take advantage of rapid advances in data, genomics, predictive and preventative medicine.
“It allows us to introduce patient passports, so whether you’re seeing a GP or a hospital surgeon, they have your full medical history. We will be able to judge a child’s risk of disease from birth, so they can take steps to prevent it striking.”
Launching a “national conversation” with the public, health workers and experts to help shape the government’s 10-year NHS plan, to be published in spring next year, Streeting said that as well as the digitisation of the NHS, he wanted healthcare to shift from hospitals to the community.
As part of that, the government wants new neighbourhood health centres where patients will be able to see family doctors, district nurses, care workers, physiotherapists, health visitors and mental health specialists, all locally and under the same roof.
There will also be a third shift in focus, from sickness to prevention, with the aim of shortening the amount of time people spend chronically unwell and preventing ill-health. Smart watches and wearable tech will be handed to millions of people with diabetes or high blood pressure, so they can monitor their own health at home.
The prime minister is expected to accompany Streeting at the launch of the new online platform at a London health centre on Monday.
Keir Starmer said of the consultation: “We have a clear plan to fix the health service, but it’s only right that we hear from the people who rely on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it.
“Together we can build a healthcare system that puts patients first and delivers the care that everyone deserves.
“We have a huge opportunity to put the NHS back on its feet. So, let’s be the generation that took the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and made it fit for the future.”
