A poll of over 200 GPs has found that almost 60% of them have been approached by patients wanting to opt-out of the summary care record, before the system has even been rolled out in their area.
According to Pulse magazine, 59% of GPs surveyed said they had already been approached by patients requesting to opt-out of having their details loaded onto the summary care record, part of Connecting for Health’s Care Records Service (CRS) scheme.
Currently in its pilot phase, the Summary Care Record has been introduced at initial pilot sites in Bolton, with 11 surgeries and 66,000 patients so far signed up to the scheme. The early phase of SCR includes details such as patient’s allergies and current medication.
Connecting for Health say that in this area only 0.23% of patients have opted out to date.
However, the Pulse survey shows that elsewhere patients appear reluctant to have their record uploaded and available to view by NHS staff other than their GP without adequate authorisation rights.
Last month, one E-Health Insider Primary Care reader pointed out that their surgery has had an opt-out rate of four patients a day: “Two percent of our patients have opted out (of both the summary care record and the detailed care record) – approaching 200 patients. Upwards of four patients a day opting out at present.”
One GP told Pulse that developers of the Spine were among those requesting to opt-out of the system.
Dr Sally Hope, a GP in Woodstock in Oxfordshire, told the magazine: “What was really scary was the first patient to approach us was someone who had helped design the software for the Spine.”
The news comes as a Bolton local newspaper reports that four family doctors in the area have raised serious security concerns about the system and are worried it will put people off visiting their GP for fear their records will become public.
Dr John Tabor from the Kilodnan House Medical Practice in Horwich, told the paper: “There will be 250,000 people who will have access to these records and even though they have been criminally checked, I just don’t believe there won’t be the odd bad apple.”
However, Dr Gillian Braunold, CfH’s GP clinical lead, said that these opt-outs were expected following ‘negative publicity’ but the guidance leaflets on the SCR sent to residents was helping allay these fears.
“It was for that very reason [negative publicity] that the deputy chief medical officer and I sent out guidance to all practices in England on the same day as leaflets went out in Bolton to give guidance to colleagues.”
CfH added that patients and GPs should discuss their opt-out request and look at literature available on http://www.crs.nhs.uk before making a decision, about their medical records.
Patients who want to opt-out from having a Summary Care Record have to apply for exemption under section 10 of the Data Protection Act, on the grounds that it will cause them ‘substantial damage or distress’, under the current opt-out declaration scheme.
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