Sharing patient information electronically throughout NHS: Patient confidentiality may not be guaranteed

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7415.623-b

BMJ 2003;327:623 (13 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7415.623-b

Letter

Sharing patient information electronically throughout NHS

Patient confidentiality may not be guaranteed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—As general practitioners in the brave new worldof sharing patient information electronically throughout theNHS,¹ can we still promise our patients that we will keep theirsecrets confidential? With the threat of central servers forour computers, practices would no longer be the keepers of theirown data. The NHS would like easy access to our information—butwho else would have such access?

If out of hours and accident and emergency departments are ableto tap into our computers, then no one would have any medicalsecrets. Unlike hospitals, histories in general practice containvery deeply personal information about patients (mental illness,marital problems, alcoholism, abortions, impotence, etc). Doesanyone really believe that it would remain secret for long thata local politician (or doctor) had been mentally ill?

Access for primary care trusts would mean that managers maybe able to tap in and see the . . . [Full text of this article]

Paul D Oldfield, general practitioner

Weaverham Surgery, Weaverham CW8 3EU oldfieldmanor@aol.com

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Sharing patient information electronically throughout the NHS: Nick Booth
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