Patients who wish to opt out of having their information recorded on the NHS Care Records Service will only be able to do so if they are prepared to have paper records, according to a GP who has mounted a long running campaign against the NCRS.
Dr Paul Thornton, a GP in Kingsbury, Warwickshire, says the promise from health ministers that patients will be able to opt-out of the NCRS only amounts an alternative of paper records for patients who are able to find GPs and hospitals prepared to record their care on paper.
He told EHI Primary Care: “That means patients don’t have a real choice to opt out because paper records would be detrimental to their care. What they are in effect saying to patients is: ‘Have your records on the national database or suffer’.”
Dr Thornton has raised his concerns after questioning Professor Mike Pringle, joint GP clinical lead for Connecting for Health, at the annual National Vision User Group conference last month.
Dr Thornton says Professor Pringle told the conference that patients will be able to opt out of having a national care record if they are able to find a GP that will take them on with paper records.
Prof Pringle confirmed to EHI Primary Care this week that the paper option was a possibility for those who wanted nothing to do with the NCRS.
He added: “Every practitioner has an obligation to write a record but there is no legal compunction for that record to be electronic. Of course there are major patient safety issues and other issues if it isn’t electronic but it’s a patient right to say that is what he wishes and that can happen if the doctor and the patient agree.”
Prof Pringle said there had so far only been one or two patients who had expressed a desire not to have an electronic record.
He added: “I expect there will be more people over time but it’s a very very small number. The vast majority of patients do wish to have that electronic record and then be able to limit the way in which it is shared if they have anxieties about it. ”
Prof Pringle said the NCRS would have to demonstrate it was capable of delivering a safe and secure system.
“The care record has not only got to protect people’s confidentiality and be secure but its got to earn everyone’s trust and confidence that it will do so as it is deployed.”
Dr Thornton said he would like the NHS to abandon its plans for a single database and adopt the model recommended by the British Computer Society with much improved local databases and communication between systems as it was needed, with patient’s explicit consent.
“That can bring the benefits that Connecting for Health are seeking from a single database,” he added.