Better Information Means Better Care

Has anyone received the NHS leaflet through the post ‘Better Information Means Better Care’?

I have to say I nearly mistook it for junk mail and I retrieved it from the bin just in time! If you did miss it then it is really important to know what is happening as this is arguably ‘the biggest transformation of the way the NHS handles our confidential data for decades.’

The leaflet explains how the NHS is going to collect all the medical information that they hold about you from your GP to go onto a centralised database. The information will include your NHS number (a unique identifier), and other information such as your date of birth and postcode.

With all of this data there will be good things that come from it in terms of knowing more information about health variations across the country which could be used to plan health services more effectively.

However there are implications of allowing your data to be collected as in time it will be made available to third parties e.g. pharmaceutical and insurance companies possibly at a price.

If you wish to allow your data to be included you don’t need to do anything as this will automatically happen in March. If however you do not wish to then you must contact your GP surgery and tell them that you wish to opt out.

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