Current status

If you used our opt out form, your GP data should already not leave your GP practice, and this is generally within your GP’s control. GP data is not the topic of this page.

If you used our opt out form and ticked the second box, as of January 2016, the HSCIC (which handles hospital data for the NHS) now knows that you have opted out, but the Secretary of State has delayed them honouring your wishes for hospital data about you. What is he waiting for?

Page 35 of the Conservative Manifesto 2015 says “We will give you full access to your own electronic health records, while retaining your right to opt-out of your records being shared electronically”. 

Action you can take:

More details will appear here shortly. To keep informed, please join our mailing list for ongoing updates, or check back on our news page. If you are extremely concerned, you can use the three bullet points below and explain to your MP why this issue matters to you.

It’s easy to fix:

  1. Fix this Problem: Jeremy Hunt should honour his promise to patients, and implement the interim-type-2 HSCIC opt outs. HSCIC can do this immediately if Secretary of State tells them to. It’s not hard; it’s just opposed by his civil servants. Who does he work for?
  2. Prevent a Repeat: Given this latest breach of trust by the Secretary of State himself, he should commit to every patient having full access to a list of every way their medical record have been shared or accessed. He can start in 2016 with what can be done now (which is mostly HSCIC & GPs – a large majority of most people’s data), and all of the NHS by the end of the Parliament.
  3. Remove the cause: Work towards a clear consent language, implemented across the NHS. The transparency from (2) means patients will know how it has (and where it hasn’t) been implemented. A full fix everywhere takes time.

We have more details on how each of these will help.