Wednesday 19 February 2014

How to opt out of the NHS care data scheme

At a meeting last night I couldn't find anyone who had received their letter about the sharing of individual's medical data so it is good news that implementation has been delayed for six months.

There are concerns about the security of the system and its possible misuse. This was discussed in the Guardian 18 months ago: LINK

If you decide you want to opt out of the system, which is your right, Fax Your GP Com LINK have set uo an easy facility. This is what they say:

We’re a very small group of volunteers who think it should be very easy for people to opt out of the new NHS care.data centralised database of medical records.

Unless you opt out now, care.data will soon store the medical records of everyone in England, yours included, in one giant database.

Our confidential health information will then be shared with companies and other public bodies.

Some people we respect think care.data is, on balance, a good thing.
Some people we respect think care.data is, on balance, a bad thing.

What we know for certain is that the NHS hasn’t made it easy for you to exercise your right to opt out. We think this really isn’t wise.

The NHS leaflet explaining care.data says you should ‘let your GP know’ if you want to opt out.
But GP surgeries are busy. If you ring up wanting to opt out they’ll ask you to write to them instead. That’s fair enough – their priority is treating the sick.

It’s 2014. The NHS really should have made it easy to opt out via the web.
So we thought we’d help out.

First, we found the fax numbers for every GP practice (sadly, very few let you email them). After you’ve entered your details, our clever computers automatically fax your letter asking to opt-out of the care.data database straight to your GP practice.

It’s free. It’s secure. And we don’t store any of your personal data once your opt-out fax has been received by your GP. So we won’t email trying to sign you up for other campaigns.

Sadly we can’t make any 100% watertight promises that this site will always work. Your GP’s fax number might be listed incorrectly on the NHS website, for example.

So if you want total reassurance, it might be best to print out an opt out letter and pop it round to your GP yourself.

However, we have done this sort of thing before, and so know it works well. Back in 1999/2000 some of us built FaxYourMP.com, to make it easy for people to contact their MP, since in those days most MPs didn’t publish their email addresses. A bit like GPs, today, in fact.

We didn’t expect to have to resurrect a similar service nearly 15 years later. Frankly, we shouldn’t have had to, but needs must.

— Stef Magdalinski and friends.

The Keep Our NHS Public leaflet downloadable below contains an opt-out letter you can take to your GP:


3 comments:

trevor said...

how could anyone trust a So called coalition government that have betrayed us with regards to the tobacco addiction problem,
Let alone those were found guilty of Misusing the MP's Expenses System?
just stop and think about the reality of life in this country.
We Live in a country in which self abuse has become the norm...after all look at the damage smoking does to the health of those that smoke!
therefore smoking isn't beneficial should be banned but yet it is legal!
and yet we are Living in a country that never forgets to celebrate Christmas and yet it forgets to apply the principles found in the Christian bible which if applied are undoubtedly beneficial such as Cleansing ourselves of everything that damages us physically and spiritually.
but yet the drivers of this country aka the politicians or government have overlooked those principles and why?
because they decide that profit is better and so they put profit before principle and wickedly allow a system to grow in which the people they are meant to be serving learn to abuse themselves by means of smoking.
advertising cigarettes isn't permitted anymore but that does not mean the government cares...no it's simply cause the advertising campaign has served its purpose and the nation has become a nation of smokers.
and as a result the broken and uneven pavements we walk upon and trip over from day to day have become the unofficial ashtrays.
Take a Walk along chalk road for example and you see no end of cigarette stubs and empty cigarette boxes strewn along it.
it certainly doesn't look good and speaks volumes about the shameful realities of life in this country.

Anonymous said...

Hang on Trevor, the priest always told me always that self-abuse was INTENDED to 'cleanse ourselves of everything' etc etc.

trevor said...

Anom,
I don't think smoking is Something to be mocked.
especially when it causes countless preventable deaths each year in this country alone let alone the world.
what the government have allowed regards smoking is Terrible.
The human body was not designed for the purpose of smoking.