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Health committee chair backs database plans

Kablenet.com

Published: 28 Feb 2008 16:47 GMT

The chair of the Commons Health Select Committee has criticised the doctors campaigning against the development of the NHS electronic patient record system.

Kevin Barron told a Westminster Hall debate on the subject he thought it sad that some health professionals are actively campaigning against the record being introduced.

"On one website that I looked at this week, a practice is getting people to opt out, saying that the records will be sold to pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and that the government will profit from them," Barron said.

"That is palpable nonsense, but it is being propagated by medical professionals in this country," he added, going on to describe a press release from the British Medical Association on the subject as "scaremongering", and saying that he worried about the BMA's leadership, given its opposition to a central database of summary patient records.

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He referred to a briefing document from the BMA, which mentioned a lost disc of records on 160,000 patients from City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, but did not say that it was encrypted. Health minister Ben Bradshaw added: "The disc was found. Of course, that was not reported."

Barron added: "I am not a clinician, but one could well argue that not having a central database could be a matter of life or death. If I am on holiday in Torquay and keel over in the road because of a long-term condition, it may not immediately be obvious what the problem is."

He said that other such systems, such as that run by the US Veterans' Association, had shown their worth elsewhere. "When there were the disastrous problems caused by the hurricane in New Orleans and all the local systems were shut down, the healthcare of the veterans who got out could continue because of that database. It worked well, and those people's needs were not lost," he said.

Although generally supportive of the government, Barron said the committee had recommended that only patients could open the sealed envelope within records, except when there is a legal requirement otherwise, and was keen to see action including prosecutions taken against health-service staff who leak patient data.