NHS summary care record good/bad?

[evedawn]

i'm busy updating a whole bunch of summary care records...you know the NHS patient data centralised data base which means if you live in say ....Dover and need to be seen by a hosp / dr in say Leicester the temporary gp / hosp can access a certain, limited amount of your health info...well I think it is great in theory...but I do not trust that this info won't somehow get lost / abused / accidentally changed in the future. Therefore i as and NHS employee and patient have opted out. What do you think....

[237SJ]

I started a thread about this a couple of weeks ago. My mate is a nurse and has opted out. Interesting that as an NHS employee you have too.

[jake-the-peg]

I think you have to compare the risk to the benefit.

If I were to be in an accident somewhere the benefit of doctors having immediate access to my records could be of huge benefit.

Personally I'd be more than happy to take the risk for that benefit.

However I can quite see how if I suffered from certain conditions like HIV/AIDS I might take a different view

[evedawn]

yes, the "general public" (ie: patients) don't always realise how shambolic confidentiality already is in the NHS, (not saying all staff / depts but MANY staff / depts don't comply - scary) I've spoken with quite a few NHS staff who agree with your mate, (the nurse) and myself saying the THEORY is great but the REALITY may be very different.

[askyourgran]

Do you have a choice to opt out. I didn't know I had opted in! However seeing as I have/will been centralised I think it may help, if for instance if I fell ill visiting my family in Buckingham. There isn't much anyone can change or abuse in my records. But if some numpty called up the wrong records and had me down as some sort of maniac or had a serious degenerative disease and 'not to be resuscitated.' The worse case scenario, my being unconcious, then that would be disastrous.

[evedawn]

if you don't "opt out" the nhs automatically asumes that you agree for your records to go onto the database. the details "supposed" to be available are only repeat medication, acute medications, allergies, or chronic illness' However...we have been informed that over time more details "might" be added to be readilly available. also originally the details would only be available to clinical staff, (ie: no-one else oughta need the medical info) I however, now know, (certainly where I work) that this information is also available to some non-clinical staff...(including myself). I don't agree with that. I will admit to been a conspiracy theorist though ...always not just with this.

[brenda]

opted out .Brenda

[dennisb66]

I think it's a great move forward,the benefits are to great to be ignored.

[chokkie]

what about if a hospital doctor takes his laptop home to work on some stuff and accidentally leaves it on the back seat of his car and the car gets stolen .... There is so much scope for confidentiality break-down.

Not to mention that a lot of the new hospitals nowadays built under a PFI initiative (i.e. privately financed) don't have their medical records on-site ...

..........

[boxtops]

Evedawn is this web-based, or is it all stashed on a central server somewhere in DH? I should have paid more attention to it, but I think it's not on anybody's laptop or on CD which could be stolen.

[treetops1]

Wouldn`t mind someone else seeing my records might get diagnosed quicker.

[campbellking]

I'm an NHS employee who hasn't opted out. I work part of my day on ITU, and if we get, for example, a patient who has been involved in a car crash who doesn't live in our area, it can be more difficult to establish their 'normal' parameters and treat accordingly (always fun trying to get information from G.P.'s surgeries at weekends).
Having said that, I do have the world's most boring medical history, and haven't actually consulted a G.P. for thirteen years.

[marval]

I did not opt out, I hope I can get better and quicker treatment if my medical details can be accessed.

[4getmenot]

i didnt opt out, but then could be different if i had a big medical history

[tamborine]

this is all above me.....I can't get to see my own medical records !

[Jan1957]

I don't understand the mentality these days of not wanting your details put on a computer. Surely it makes treatment on the NHS easier if you are taken ill out of the area you live in. It's only people who have something to hide who care.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes - unfortunately what you might have to hide might be the results of a genetic test for example.

You might have had one and been told you have one of the BRCA genes giving you a high risk of breast cancer.

You might not want such information to get out to your health insurer or your employer or all sorts of people who do not need to know.

Thats why I say that you have to weigh the risks against benefits.

That calculation may be different for different people

[evedawn]

to reply to box Q of yesterday - yes it is in a centralised data base. However, if a GP left their laptop bag along with their nhs "smart" card (IT ID card) on a train (for eg) it'd be fairly simple for a computer hacker to log on, (by working out the GP's passcode). Jakes comment about certain info being available to health insurers or employers is what I feel may be a big risk (in the future) if the info is only used by healthcare professionals in an emergency situation it'd be fine but let's face it ....information of a sensitive nature has been leaked before.