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News items on 'Paperless Medical Enterprises?'
London medical records go online
(BBC 16/11/2009)
Millions of patient records are to go online in London after long delays to an NHS IT upgrade in the city. The £12bn government programme has been beset with problems and is four years behind schedule. The records, which contain details of patient medications and allergies, will go live on Thursday following pilot studies across England. It is hoped the system will allow data to be shared more easily. The scheme will also be rolled out across England.
Doctors 'must report knife crime'
(BBC 26/09/2009)
Doctors in the UK should tell police every time they treat a victim of gun and knife crime, new guidelines from the General Medical Council will state. They are also told they can breach patient confidentiality by giving police information if they believe a crime has or will be committed. If a patient is diagnosed with a genetic disease doctors will be able to tell relatives, without consent. The revised guidance on confidentiality will be published on Monday.
'Tweeting' medics expose patients
(BBC 24/09/2009)
Medics posting messages on networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are breaching patient confidentiality, a leading journal reveals. Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association found examples of web gossip by trainee doctors sharing private patient stories and details. Over half of 78 US medical schools studied had reported cases of students posting unprofessional content online. One in 10 of these contained frank violations of patient confidentiality.
Logging off
(BBC 10/08/2009)
The Conservatives want to let you view your health records online. All they have to do first is dismantle one of the biggest civil IT projects in the world. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley made headlines when he told the BBC about plans to give patients access to their medical histories through their home PCs. But to achieve that the Tories want to pick apart the massive NHS computer project known as the National Programme for IT.
NHS IT needs overhaul, say Tories
(BBC 10/08/2009)
The Conservatives have said they would create huge cost savings for the NHS by scrapping plans for a central database of patient records. Their plans would include electronic medical notes being stored locally by GPs and hospitals and patients having online access to their medical records. They also say NHS trusts would have more choice over new computer systems. The government said patients were already benefiting from the progress that had been made in online records.
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Tories plan access to NHS files
(BBC 09/08/2009)
NHS patients would be able to access their own medical records online under proposals by the Conservatives. Under plans to be outlined on Monday, every patient would have a username and password and IT firms such as Google or Microsoft could host the information. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said it would give people "greater control over their own health care" [The 60% of patients whose GPs use EMIS systems can already access their health records online] .
Health chiefs to tighten up security of medical records
(The Scotsman 29/07/2009)
HEALTH chiefs in the Lothians have said they have taken action to protect patient data, after being criticised over two separate cases where medical records were lost. The health board has been rapped by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which investigated the incidents. In one, a USB memory stick containing the personal information of 137 patients was lost by a community health worker last June. The ICO said the memory stick should not have been used to store NHS Lothian data.
Octuplets' hospital privacy fine
(BBC 17/07/2009)
The hospital where octuplets were born in January has been fined for a second time for failing to protect the family's medical privacy. Nadya Suleman attracted worldwide attention after giving birth to eight babies at Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital was fined $250,000 in May over staff looking at Suleman's records inappropriately. The new $187,500 fine is for similar breaches of the babies' privacy.
My husband's medical secrets are safer with me than on a skip
(Telegraph 05/06/2009)
Vicki Woods wonders why her local doctor's surgery is so paranoid about giving out any information whatsoever. Well, I'm calling from the medical centre," she said. "But we're not supposed to tell you that." Really? Why? Because of the Data Protection Act? "No, because of patient confidentiality." I said, look - if he's forgotten to pick up his prescription... "It's not that. He has to have a blood test before his next prescription. But we're not supposed to tell you that, either."
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