BMA: 'Patient privacy under threat'

Confidential information could be released

New laws under discussion in Parliament will give the government 'unacceptable' powers over patient records, say doctors.

A clause of the Health and Social Care Bill, which completes its Commons committee stage on Thursday, allows the Health Secretary to demand the disclosure of patient information which would normally be entirely confidential.

The British Medical Association (BMA) believes there is no overwhelming public interest to justify doing this.

Patients should always be asked for their consent before information about their medical history and treatment is revealed to a third party, it says.

The government says the powers are needed to help the government effectively monitor standards in the NHS.

But the BMA says that the situations in which the clause is used should be rare - and require Parliamentary clearance on every occasion.

Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the BMA's Ethics Committee, said: "If information, which could identify a patient, is to be disclosed without consent, there must be very powerful reasons for doing so.

"There are occasions when it can be justified but I am unhappy at giving such wide and unspecified powers to the Secretary of State."

'Confidentiality threatened'

His words were echoed by Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA's GP's Committee.

He said: "A blanket requirement to post copies of correspondence to all patients is simply not acceptable.

"Some would be extremely worried about their notes falling into the wrong hands.

"As it stands, this section could threaten patient confidentiality instead of improving communication between doctors and patients."

Conservative shadow health minister Liam Fox said: "It is typical of the arrogance and high-handedness of the Secretary of State that he can deal as he wishes with confidential information on a whim."

Paul Burstow MP, health spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: "There has been no separate consultation on the need for such powers, their scope and the principles that ought to govern their use.

The Bill places little or no limitation of the use of the control of information powers by the Secretary of State."

The problem faced by the government is how to extract data for monitoring doctors from the individual patient notes held at each practice.

Ideally, the data should be anonymised - with all information that could identify the patient removed - before being sent out, but, as the vast majority of notes are on paper, the potential logistical task is immense.

Their solution is to allow the inspection of the notes themselves.

There are very few current circumstances in which patients' medical details can be released to the Department of Health without permission.

One is the monitoring of communicable diseases.