Health Service Record Confidentiality

[Adrian Midgley]

It seems to be an article of faith, or something repeated often down a
hierarchy, that the NHS number is anonymous.

So the expectation I've observed is that the anonymous records will have an
identifier unique to the citizen or resident, and cross-referenceable to
their name by many people for many legitimate purposes.

It is possible that I've failed to comprehend the full cleverness of the
scheme of assurance of anonymity, and that there is more to it than
assurance.




On 8 February 2014 00:29, Roger Hayter <roger at hayter.org> wrote:

> According to a recent Parliamentary answer by Dan Poulter (Health
> Minister), if you opt out your data will not be sold or given to anyone
> outside the NHS in identifiable form. *But* it will still be centrally
> collected, stored and collated with new information, it will still be
> available for the police to investigate 'serious crime', and probably it
> will still be available for sale to commercial/research parties in
> pseudo-anonymised form.   You can make your own assumptions from known law
> and practice about GCHQ.  There was a rumour that the pseudo-anonymised
> stuff would *include* NHS number, but this is so silly it may be
> disinformation.
>
> --
>
> Roger Hayter
>
>
> On 7 Feb 2014, at 18:25, Peter Tomlinson <pwt at iosis.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > A leaflet came through my letterbox this week (the same day that I went
> off to one of those NHS independent contractor minor procedure units [1] to
> have a stubborn molar removed by their dental surgeon - he is, of course,
> not a white anglo saxon protestant (or catholic or..), but likely from
> Egypt and did a brilliant job, as did the rest of the team).
> >
> > NHS is the badge of the leaflet, 'Better information means better care'
> is the banner. It refers me to:
> >
> > - NHS Choices web site
> >
> > - 'staff at your GP practice'
> >
> > - 0300 456 3531 (nothing about any call costs)
> >
> > - 'More details about how we look after confidential information and how
> it may be used can be found on the website at www.hscic.gov.uk/patientconf
> '
> >
> > It asks 'Do I need to do anything?. The answer is nothing if I'm happy
> for my infomation to be shared. And the vital but naked statement "And you
> can change your mind at any time".
> >
> > So its opt in by default.
> >
> > Peter
> >
> > [1] 'minor' indeed - in the waiting room I found their poster for their
> fast track hip replacement jobs.
> >
> > On 07/02/2014 16:44, Ian Batten wrote:
> >> It seems to be coming from all angles, doesn't it?
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>


-- 
Adrian Midgley   http://www.defoam.net/
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