Posted on 02/06/2014 7:07:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is threatening to shut down the practice of a general practitioner because he isn’t readily volunteering his patients’ private medical records to a new government data collection program.
Dr. Gordon Gancz decided to opt all of his patients out of the “caredata” medical-information scheme due to privacy concerns and worries about the security of his patients’ personal information. With the new data-collection system, the government hopes to create an accurate appraisal of the quality of health and social care across England, targeting areas that are underperforming.
The NHS promises to delink any identifying information from the records collected and keep the anonymous information controlled by strict confidentiality rules.
However, critics are worried that the system will be open to hackers or that information might be sold to private health-insurance companies and drug manufacturers.
The program, which begins in March, allows individuals to opt out and keep their information private by informing their general practitioner of their decision, but Gancz does not think patients have been properly informed about their ability to opt out. “I believe research is important — medicine is all about research — but patients should positively want to release their information,” Gancz told the Daily Mail. “In many cases patients will not even know that this scheme is about to start so they will not have an opportunity to opt out, should they so wish.”
Worried about the program, Gancz decided to automatically opt all of his patients out of the system, allowing them to opt in if they so choose. Now, he told the Mail, the NHS is threatening to shut down his practice. The government-run health service has also sent him a “threatening” e-mail telling him to remove a statement on his website informing his patients that he was “concerned” about the data-extraction scheme and would only opt his patients into the program upon request. The NHS allegedly told Gancz that by not automatically opting in his patients he would be “in breach of his contract.”
Gancz has accused the NHS of trying to “bulldoze” doctors with “blatant bullying.” As of yet, the fate of his practice has not been determined.
— Alec Torres is a William F. Buckley Fellow at the National Review Institute.
Last week I had a physical by a doctor a friend recommended which I paid cash for rather than go through the BS of dealing with the insurance, it cost me only $100, but what was interesting was how fast he went through it. Zip zip zip, like he was in a rush. And my friend told me that’s how doctors work nowadays because they have to treat so many patients a day because of Obamacommiecare. Anyone know if that is the case? That is really effed up if so, because I walked out of there pretty ticked off. It was really bizarre assembly line kind of crap “move it along next next next” I can’t even imagine the hell doctors go through today, all those years in med school, tons of student loans, then having to pay 6 figures a year in insurance then having to deal with this freakin’ Marxistcare.
“Caredata” is double plus good.
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