http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=292074

Ministers to snoop on patients' private medical records

By Jo Dillon Political Correspondent

05 May 2002

The Government is proposing controversial legislation which will allow ministers to see and pass on confidential patient information contained in private medical files.

Under new legal regulations that will be brought to Parliament next week and are almost certain to be passed, the Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, will be allowed to order doctors to give him an individuals' medical records without their permission, to pass them on for research purposes or if there is a perceived risk to public health, and to fine doctors up to £5,000 if they refuse to co-operate.

Civil liberties campaigners warn that the move could spell the end of the doctor-patient relationship and potentially breach human rights.

There are fears that information about mental health patients could be obtained for "research purposes" and passed on without the patient's consent, and that HIV and Aids sufferers could find that private information about their cases is no longer private.

Experts believe patients could be discouraged from discussing intensely private and potentially embarrassing complaints with their doctors.

At present, only the patient and the doctor have the right to see medical records. Information cannot be passed on without consent unless a court of law orders it, or the police request it in rape or murder cases or it contains information about a strict list of infectious diseases, including measles, mumps and meningitis, which must, by law, be passed to the Public Health Laboratory Service.

The director of Liberty, John Wadham, said: "This is another example of the absence of strong controls on our personal information.

"There is a growing trend in government towards sharing data. Unfortunately, we can't trust the Government to look after data ­ there are too many examples where their definition of the public interest ... over-rides our basic human rights."

The General Medical Council and the British Medical Association have both agreed to support the Government after warnings that opposition could lead to medical research being stifled. They were told it was a vital resource in the fight against cancer, as information will be put into cancer registries to monitor trends and evaluate the effectiveness of prevention and screening programmes. There were also guarantees that the information will not be abused.

But a spokesman for the GMC said: "We are not happy because we believe patients should have a right of autonomy in relation to their information and confidentiality."

The Tories are also determined to try and block the regulations, which will be brought before the House of Commons on 16 May.

Liam Fox, the shadow health secretary, said: "This is yet another illiberal measure brought forward by this Government which will effectively end our rights to confidentiality. Doctors will be put in the impossible position of choosing between breaking their ethics or breaking the law."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "Section 60, a new power available to Health Secretary Alan Milburn allows confidential information about patients to be used without their consent.

"Section 60 will only be used to sustain essential NHS activity that benefits this and future generations of patients while new ways of working and consent procedures are set in place."

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