Category Archives: News

YOUR HEALTH: YOUR RECORDS, YOUR CHOICE – medConfidential launch conference

Audio, presentations and coverage of medConfidential’s inaugural conference held on 24th April 2013. Thanks to everyone who came, especially to all our speakers and hard-working volunteers who helped ensure everything ran smoothly.

Sessions and speeches as per the programme:

An overview of current policy including the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES); online access to medical records; the single care plan; the ingredients of valid consent – Phil Booth and Terri Dowty, joint coordinators of medConfidential

Phil Booth – audio (MP3) |presentation (.ppt)
Terri Dowty – audio (MP3) |presentation (.ppt)

Online patient records: safety and privacy – Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory

Ross Anderson – audio (MP3) |presentation (.pptx)

The next step: Linking medical records, DNA and genetic information – Dr Helen Wallace, Director of Genewatch UK

Helen Wallace – audio (MP3) |presentation (.pptx)

NHS Confidentially and Patient Advice – Helen Wilkinson, Coordinator of TheBigOptOut Patient Advice Line

Helen Wilkinson – audio (MP3)

Our right to medical privacy – Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty

Shami Chakrabarti – audio (MP3)

Plenary: feedback from workshops

Sue White, Ross Anderson, Ian Brown and Phil Booth – audio (MP3)

The workshops covered:

(1) The single care plan for children and its extension to adults – Sue White, Professor of Social Work (Children and Families) at Birmingham University + Terri Dowty

(2) The GP Extraction System and patient confidentiality – Dr John Cormack, GP and Professor Ross Anderson

(3) Keeping data safe and why ‘anonymisation’ isn’t the answer – Dr Ian Brown, Associate Director (Cyber Security Centre) and Senior Research Fellow of the Oxford Internet Institute + Sam Smith, Privacy International

(4) A brainstorming session to assess the potential risks for each sector and steps forward – Phil Booth

Online coverage of the conference, including some video:

Liveblog of the conference on Light Blue Touchpaper

Report by Shibley Rahman on the Socialist Healthcare Association’s website (3 videos)

A ‘hat-trick’ from TechEye.net:
UK’s ‘anonymous’ health records are wide open
Your genetic make up to be stored, without consent, for profit
Shami Chakrabarti lends support to new health privacy campaign

 

 

PRESS RELEASE: Unprecedented health data grab; kids to be tagged for life by NHS number

In response to the Department of Health’s “pledge to reduce child mortality” [1] Phil Booth, Coordinator of campaign group medConfidential [2] said:

“Our children’s health is of concern to us all, but behind the Department of Health’s latest policy statement lies a far more disturbing bureaucratic programme.

“What its proposal boils down to is the creation of a government-led “intelligence network” on children; a lifelong data trail where children – tagged at birth by their NHS number – are processed by a system designed to make their most sensitive personal health details available to a whole range of people and agencies for multiple, unspecified “secondary uses”.

“Presented as a measure to protect children, in reality this is an extraordinary and unprecedented data-grab. While the NHS Commissioning Board prepares to begin uploading patient records from GP practices, the Department of Health is clearly coming for your kids’. Yet again children are to be used as the trojan horse to introduce an otherwise unpalatable agenda. This is the first step in a planned programme that will see the elimination of medical confidentiality for the entire population.”

– ENDS –

Notes for editors:

1) The ‘pledge’ and full report, ‘Improving Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes: a system wide response’, is published here.

2) medConfidential is a new public campaign fighting for confidentiality and consent in health and social care. It was founded in January 2013 by several existing organisations – Privacy International, Big Brother Watch, NO2ID, FIPR and TheBigOptOut – in direct response to the imminent and serious threat posed by radical changes in the way the Department of Health collects and passes on patient health information from NHS health record systems. MedConfidential is an independent, non-partisan organisation working with patients and medics, service users and care professionals to defend and enhance confidentiality across the health and social care arena.

For further information or for immediate or future interview, please contact Phil Booth, medConfidential Coordinator, on 07974 230 839 or phil@medconfidential.org