Milton Keynes councillors raise security concerns about NPfIT core database

Councillors will also explicitly tell residents of the Buckinghamshire town they can choose not to have a summary care record created for them.

 

At a recent council meeting, the council noted its local Primary Care Trust was currently writing to all patients registered with a Milton Keynes doctor about creating national summary care records but in the meeting a majority of the councillors agreed to note that groups such as NO2ID have expressed concern that summary care records may be joined with a national identity database, that electronic records are open to hacking or misuse by non-legitimate parties for personal gain and “a much higher level of data security will be required before the public can have confidence in such systems”.

 

The Council also agreed to remind residents that they can "opt out of having a summary care record created for them". Finally, it decided to ask its officials to "urgently provide a written report to the Cabinet addressing the areas of concern with the potential of making written representations to both the Primary Care Trust and the two members of parliament for Milton Keynes, if it is considered necessary".

 

If too few patients agree to have their data electronically captured and made available centrally a core original aim of the whole £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will be unable to be met. 

 

More than 50 million people in England are due to have a Record eventually, but reports keep accumulating of low enthusiasm at grass roots level for the system and a move to opt out.

 

The news comes a week after the BMA went on record (on the BBC Today programme) to object to the pace at which Records are being assembled.