Everything you need to know about ‘patient passports’
The digital documents will contain health data that can be accessed by GPs, hospitals and ambulance services.
Today, Monday 21st October, Health Secretary Wes Streeting is set to launch a major consultation on the government’s plans to convert the NHS from ‘analogue to digital’ over the next ten years. Part of the plans include introducing ‘patient passports’.
The passports will store a patient’s health records digitally, all in one place, making them easier to access for medical professionals. However, experts have expressed a number of concerns including the fact that these digital documents could be a target for hackers, meaning patient’s privacy could be breached.
Talking to the Guardian, who were the first to report on this issue, Sam Smith, a spokesperson for medConfidential, a patient privacy campaign group, said the plan was too risky.
‘Wes Streeting is planning a ‘big brother’ database. Your identifiable medical history and all your medical notes will no longer be looked after by doctors and will be controlled by politicians who will decide who they get sold to – which will inevitably be anyone who’ll pay for them,’ Sam explained.
‘The proposals are a gift to stalkers and creeps who misuse NHS systems to find out the most basic private details that people only tell their doctors, and the government shows no sign of taking the most basic step to prevent stalkers and creeps getting access.’
Against this backdrop, the concerns raised by Sam were echoed when a similar idea was launched by the Conservative government in May. The public consultation found 21% of the people polled disagreed with the statement that ‘I trust the NHS to keep my patient data secure’.
Moreover, large majorities also claimed they were fearful that NHS IT systems could be vulnerable to cyber-attacks (82%) and 65% were fearful that the NHS might make mistakes in handling the data.
On the topic of the NHS, new laws are also due to be introduced on Wednesday that will make patient health records available across all trusts in England. This will come under the digital data bill – a legislation designed to standardise information systems across the health service and bring them all together in the NHS app.
Commenting on the move, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is expected to accompany his health secretary at the launch of the new online platform at a London health centre today, said: ‘We have a clear plan to fix the health service, but it’s only right that we hear from the people who reply on the NHS every day to have their say and shape our plan as we deliver it.
‘Together we can build a healthcare system that puts patients first and delivers the care that everyone deserves.’
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