David Cameron has announced plans to allow private companies to view our health records, and has vowed to reduce 'red tape' that governs research in the NHS. He is of course, wrong to do so.
David Cameron has unveiled plans to allow private companies to access health records.
He plans to make all of our health records available for scrutiny by private companies who will then do with that data what they see fit. The records will be minus names, but will contain all information about our illnesses, and the care and treatment we may have received.
The motivation for this is to allow Britain to become world leaders in life sciences. A government spokesman said, “These changes will not only boos the industry, but also potentially give the NHS early access to new, innovative drug treatments”.
It is part of a wider plan to relax what he calls, the ‘excessive regulation’ of research within the NHS.
As someone who has conducted research in the NHS, I found the process of gaining ethical approval an arduous one to say the least. However, I choose to refer to them as ‘safeguards’ rather than regulations. They are not there to piss researchers off. They are there to safeguard patients and staff. There is a lot of fantastic research done within the NHS and I hope this continues, but the relaxing of research safeguards just so private companies can come in is a disgrace. The principles of protecting patients and their records is paramount and they should not be weakened.
As well as the ethical issues around the government’s ridiculous plans, the other main issue for me is, who the hell gives them the right to allow any private companies to view my health records, whether my name is included or not? It is the fundamental issue of my records, my choice. Or it should be.
Comments
Quite right. (BTW I added the
Quite right. (BTW I added the NHS tag to this article)
Okidoki
Okidoki
some stuff about this on this
some stuff about this on this week's Moral Maze on Radio 4
As a sidenote, has anyone
As a sidenote, has anyone looked at those hilariously fucking terrifying 'clinical guinea pig' trials operated by Paraxel and those other utterly horrible and creepy private corporations?
You get paid a couple of grand to go in and possibly die of multiple organ failure, apparently (I read this on some local news) they are having huge takings. Would the sharing of public records just make it easier for them to prospectively contact patients and shit?
I mean several people died in 2006 in these trials, it just seems a little scary that the temptation is there for people, no point lying I was tempted myself recently, no one's doing well for money ('well' being subjective here).
This is an excellent post.
This is an excellent post. Many thanks.
What troubles me also, is the issues around the information recorded in psychiatric records. Reason being, as psychiatry is regarded by many as a pseudo-science, and much relies on the opinions of 'doctors', social workers and so on, then the information can often be incorrect, and open to dispute.
I have accessed my psychiatric medical records. They are pretty extensive. And some of the utter shit that was recorded there, made me well angry and suspicious of the staff whose 'care' I have been under. Two-faced, lying, opinionated, oppressive state lackeys is the description I would apply to some of them.
Private companies such as
Private companies such as HSBC I wonder?
Well obviously they will want to scrutinise the books and weigh up the potentials before buying.
Scameron should be hung, drawn and quartered for his treason, him and his associates.
He is such a hypocrite. He has cut funding relentlessly and deliberately to destroy our health service.
His agenda: Mass deaths (genocide) from sheer neglect of patients who he considers unproductive because they are reliant on welfare or collecting the pension they worked their fingers to the bones for.
When a politicians repeatedly state that people are living longer, in relation to pension costs, it's obvious they are not happy that this is the case.
People 'were' living longer because of the thriving country that we had and the excellent healthcare we no longer have.
It doesn't take much to realise that Hitler will never be dead, whilst the likes of Cameron is alive.
I find it astonishing that we are doing nothing to stop the blatant dictators across the globe, who meet in secret to plan their attacks on humanity.
Sad but I wish I'd never had children and now I have 3 grandchildren. Knowing what is coming for them is causing me so much anxiety and worry, it's driving me to an early grave but sadly, that makes me the fortunate one.