Sunday, 4 July 2021

Action Needed to Stop the Toxic Legacy of the NHS Data Grab.

 The Green Party is calling on new Health Secretary Sajid Javid to halt plans to collate millions of NHS patient records from GP surgeries into a single database, this will be accessible to private companies.

Green Party health spokesperson Peter Cranie has urged Sajid Javid to dismantle the ‘toxic legacy’ left by his predecessor Matt Hancock.

He said that “Once again we see this government prioritise profits over people. These plans could enable US health companies to potentially make huge profits off the back of processing some of our most sensitive and personal data”. 

 

He said plans to make patient data accessible were part of an ‘ideological drive to turn one of the UK’s most treasured assets into a money-making scheme for US health companies’.

 

He went on to warn that were this to happen the NHS “may then face the prospect of having to buy back the processed data, with the resultant cost to taxpayers. We will end up paying for their shareholder distributions”.

 

The proposed ‘data grab’ is part of the government’s plans for the introduction of a data sharing scheme called General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) put forward by the coalition in 2013.

 

The Green Party has concerns, along with many health campaigners, about patient privacy and the potential use of data held to be used to enrich private companies. Government promises about maintaining patient anonymity have so far proved unconvincing.

In their manifesto for the 2019 General Election the Green Party pledged to “end the sale of personal data, such as health or tax records, for commercial or other ends” and their opposition to the latest iteration of the proposal continues that position.

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “at the recent by-election and during the county council elections in May the NHS was one of the issues people wanted to talk about most”.

Adding that “everyone we spoke to was dismayed at the paltry 1% pay rise offered to NHS staff who have been national heroes over the past year. They were equally concerned that data gathered by such a trusted institution could be used by private companies against their wishes”.

Green Party Health Spokesperson Peter Cranie said in a press statement “Healthcare should not be used to enrich private companies with commercial interests when there is already a strong infrastructure in our UK Higher Education system to analyse this data confidentially in a not-for-profit way”.

 

Then warned “this will not only cost people their privacy, in the long run it will hit us all in the pocket and it must be resisted”, before going on to say, “We urge Sajid Javid to listen to campaigners and drop the plans to share peoples’ data with private companies and hold a proper consultation on the rest of the plans.”

Collection of data from GP surgeries starts on 1st September, patients have the opportunity to opt out of the scheme by completing a form accessible by using this link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-collections/general-practice-data-for-planning-and-research#type-1-opt-out-opting-out-of-nhs-digital-collecting-your-data- , some surgeries have set a deadline of 23rd August for forms to be completed.

Campaign group Open Democracy have launched a petition calling for the plans to be scrapped accessible by following this link: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/petition-dont-share-our-health-data-profit/

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