The United Kingdom’s opposition Conservative party is considering offering NHS patients the option to maintain their own medical records on commercial internet services rather than in NHS computers.

The idea, say Tory policy makers, is to “yield control of personal information to individual citizens,” both as an end in itself and as a way of saving money on centrally procured electronic health records systems, which, they say, are unpopular and subject to delays.

However, the plan will raise concerns …