1,000 signatures reached
To: Secretary of State for Health: Jeremy Hunt
Stop Selling our NHS Records to Private Companies
Dear Minister
Please stop the selling of our personal NHS records to private companies like BUPA. We have not given our consent for our data to be shared with organisations other than the NHS. I would also like you to conduct a review into why this breach of our privacy was allowed to happen.
Please stop the selling of our personal NHS records to private companies like BUPA. We have not given our consent for our data to be shared with organisations other than the NHS. I would also like you to conduct a review into why this breach of our privacy was allowed to happen.
Why is this important?
Private health firms, for example BUPA, are now able to purchase our medical records from the NHS. Your data may have been passed on to a private company without your consent being given, I think this must stop.
This data is usually passed in the form of large groups of data with many people's records being given at a time. We have been told that this data is anonymised.
This is the first step in the direction of allowing life insurers and employers to view these records. It is also yet another way the government is trying to privatise and commercialise the NHS.
We don't want private companies to be able to see the data that we trust the NHS to keep private. That is why I'm calling on the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to stop this practice immediately before conducting a review into why it was allowed to happen.
Some would argue that certain private companies should be allowed access to our information because they provide services on behalf of the NHS. However I believe that consent MUST be given and there must be accountability and transparency in the system - you must know if your data has been passed on.
This comes after David Cameron was warned 18 months ago that 'greater safeguards were needed on the use of data in the NHS'.
To find out more, go to this guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/17/private-firms-data-hospital-patients
To see what the Health and Social Care Information Center (the body responsible for our data) released which tells us who our data is sold or given to, download the document here
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/media/9973/DAAG-register-of-approved-applications/xls/DAAG_Register_13.05.2013.xls
This data is usually passed in the form of large groups of data with many people's records being given at a time. We have been told that this data is anonymised.
This is the first step in the direction of allowing life insurers and employers to view these records. It is also yet another way the government is trying to privatise and commercialise the NHS.
We don't want private companies to be able to see the data that we trust the NHS to keep private. That is why I'm calling on the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to stop this practice immediately before conducting a review into why it was allowed to happen.
Some would argue that certain private companies should be allowed access to our information because they provide services on behalf of the NHS. However I believe that consent MUST be given and there must be accountability and transparency in the system - you must know if your data has been passed on.
This comes after David Cameron was warned 18 months ago that 'greater safeguards were needed on the use of data in the NHS'.
To find out more, go to this guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/17/private-firms-data-hospital-patients
To see what the Health and Social Care Information Center (the body responsible for our data) released which tells us who our data is sold or given to, download the document here
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/media/9973/DAAG-register-of-approved-applications/xls/DAAG_Register_13.05.2013.xls
How it will be delivered
We plan to set up a meeting with Jeremy Hunt to discuss the matter. At that meeting we will hand in our petition. The date is not yet decided but I will let you know as soon as I do, and I would love it if you could make it along!
