{"id":18748,"date":"2022-03-04T12:38:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/end-of-nhs-digital-threatens-patient-privacy-says-ex-chair-the-register\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T12:38:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T12:38:15","slug":"end-of-nhs-digital-threatens-patient-privacy-says-ex-chair-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/03\/04\/end-of-nhs-digital-threatens-patient-privacy-says-ex-chair-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"End of NHS Digital threatens patient privacy, says ex-chair \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ten months after attempts first began<\/a> to extract the medical information of 55 million citizens in England, NHS Digital’s former chairman is warning the merger of the agency with NHS England threatens the privacy of people’s personal data.<\/p>\n

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The view was that if a patient had chosen to use the NHS they had implicitly agreed that their data could be used for the benefit of the NHS<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Writing in trade publication the British Medical Journal<\/a>, Kingsley Manning said health secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to merge NHS Digital into NHS England<\/a> and NHS Improvement last year was a “retrograde step not least in the context of this government’s clear intent to weaken the constraints on the use of patient data<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Founded as the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), IT and data arm NHS Digital received direction from NHS England, the central health service body charged with executing government policy in the NHS and paying health service providers.<\/p>\n

However, NHS Digital could use its discretion to not comply with a direction from NHS England to collect data and to establish specific information systems.<\/p>\n

“Doing away with an independent statutory body in NHS Digital, charged with defending patient rights, is itself, unfortunate. But handing that body and its powers to NHS England, is a grave error,” Manning said of the move.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/p>\n

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“In effect, NHS England will be able to decide that its legitimate interest override those of the citizen and the patient, with little or no external constraint or scrutiny. With no requirement for transparency and indeed with additional barriers to citizens asking for information about the use of their data, individuals may never know what NHS England chooses to do with their data. And this matters,” the BMJ article said.<\/p>\n

“In my experience, the general approach of NHS England, including of its clinicians, was that much of the guidance and regulations with respect to the use of patient [data] was seen as unnecessary. The view was that if a patient had chosen to use the NHS they had implicitly agreed that their data could be used for the benefit of the NHS,” Manning said.<\/p>\n

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