Data protection and freedom of information

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7490.490

BMJ 2005;330:490-491 (5 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7490.490

Editorial

Data protection and freedom of information

The law is only a catalyst for changing the culture in the NHS

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

The protection and use of confidential information about patientshas had welcome priority in the government's thinking in recentyears^1-3 and becomes more important with the planned introductionof the new NHS care records service.⁴ The legal framework forthe processing and use of personal information is set out inthe Data Protection Act 1998, which makes provision for theprotection of privacy and confidentiality of people's personalinformation.⁵ At the other end of the privacy spectrum, opennessand accountability in the NHS have been given a boost with theimplementation in January 2005 of the Freedom of InformationAct 2000.⁶ Many members of the public and healthcare professionalsare unclear about the details—perhaps even the existence—ofboth laws and what they mean in practice.

The Freedom of Information Acts (Scotland's was passed in 2002)give people a general right of access to information held byor on behalf . . . [Full text of this article]

Barbara Meredith

Epsom, Surrey KT17 4HQ (blmeredith@tiscali.co.uk)

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Individual performance data: revelation and revolution: Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2005 330: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

So Far - so pretty good: susanne mccabe
bmj.com, 14 Mar 2005 [Full text]
NHS culture, data protection and freedom of information: Huw Llewelyn
bmj.com, 18 Apr 2005 [Full text]
Re: NHS culture, data protection and freedom of formation: susanne mccabe soostevens@hotmail.com
bmj.com, 20 Apr 2005 [Full text]
Or you could just ask the patient: John Hopkins
bmj.com, 21 Apr 2005 [Full text]