Health records could be transferred to Google or Microsoft under a Tory government, The Times has learnt.
Patients will be given the option of moving their medical notes to private companies after the Conservatives said that they would replace Labour’s “centrally determined and unresponsive national IT systemâ€.
The Tories hope that users will be able to choose from a range of private sector websites, possibly including those operated by Bupa, the healthcare provider. This has raised issues of privacy and security, with MPs and health professionals warning it could hamper doctors’ ability to access medical records quickly in an emergency.
Read more on The Times Online.
Whilst I would never allow this to happen to my medical records and I have opted-out of having a Summary Care Record (England) and the Emergency Care Summary (Scotland), I think people should be allowed to make up their own mind to decide where their mediical records are kept. If this means they give it to google or any other priivate company, then so long as they are fully informed of the danger this poses to their privacy, and therfore their Human Rights, then who are we to not allow them to share it.
The people most at risk of this are future generations because they will think it is normal not to have your records private, after all, you can not miss something, in this case privacy, if you neever had it.
Well put, David. I agree with you completely. I hope you will feel free to post or share other news stories on these topics from your country. I do try to provide global coverage, but it’s difficult to keep up. 🙂