PATIENT confidentiality will be violated and open to abuse, Unite union said in response to plans to allow high street pharmacies like Boots, Superdrug and Tesco, free access to patients’ medical records.
Doctors, nurses and health workers were up in arms at the nationwide plan that will compromise patient confidentiality. BMA member Anna Athow commented: ‘The days of patient confidentiality has gone, it has all been sacrificed on the alter of commercial companies. ‘They have given themselves the right to take what ever patient data they like in the Health and Social Care Act.
‘This is outrageous! It means that your personal details get to be known by every Tom, Dick and Harry private company. This is essential for the US insurance model they are bringing in to replace the NHS. This must be stopped by an alliance of the trade unions and the millions of NHS patients at all costs.’
Unite national officer for health, Barrie Brown, said: ‘Unite has serious concerns about what is another step towards the accelerating privatisation of the health service, which we strongly oppose. ‘We are unhappy about patient records being given to the supermarkets as we feel this could be open to abuse in terms of privacy and data protection.
‘It is the thin end of the wedge, as there is a very real threat that patients’ records could be used to bombard unsuspecting people with the hard-sell for other products that the supermarkets may be promoting. If this goes ahead, the most stringent regulations need to be in place to stop any chance of mis-selling or the corporate hard-sell.’
The Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 states that even your employer cannot ask your GP for a medical report on you without your consent. Yet big private companies will now be given the right to access your medical records without your knowledge or consent.
In a blatant move to privatise the NHS, patients will be exposed to the ‘hard-sell’ tactics of big multi-national drug companies determined to push their medicines. The pilot, which had a minute sample of just 15 patients, concluded that the controversial scheme should be rolled out across the nation. Now 140 pharmacies across the UK will be given free access to patients’ medical records to do with as they please.