New rules on patient control over access to their health record promised

According to a DoH press release, and information on the C4H website, 'tough new rules will ensure patients keep control over access to their health records in databases to be launched next year, Health Minister Lord Warner announced today'. These will be contained in the 'Care Record Guarantee', which will set out rules governing information held in the NHS Care Records Service.

The DoH press release is at: tinyurl.com/b3vrg (tiny url created from long DoH url).

The information on C4H website is at:
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/crdb/

According to the press release, among the 12 commitments to patients about their records, are that :
* NHS staff's access to records will be strictly limited on a 'need to know' basis for providing treatment
* Eventually, patients will be able to block off parts of their record (the virtual 'sealed envelope' idea that has been around for a while)
* Patients will even be able to stop their information being seen by anyone outside the organisation which created it - although doing so may have an impact on the quality of care they receive.

On a sceptical note, one wonders about the degree of joined-up thinking across government when one then looks at the proposal for using data obtained viaNPfIT (and thus, by implication, CRDB) within the 2011 census (see May 18 item in this blog).