Campaign launched in UK to opt out of central medical database
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A campaign has been launched in the UK to get people to opt out of a
government scheme to upload medical records from family doctors’
surgeries into a central health database. TheBigOptOut.org was
launched in London on 29 November 2006 with support from NGOs such as
Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) and No2ID. An opinion poll
published at the meeting shows that 53% of UK citizens do not approve of a
central medical records database with no right to opt out; another poll the
previous week had showed that 51% of family doctors do not intend to upload
data without patient consent.
The campaign urges people in England to write to their doctors
forbidding the upload of their data. The UK government response has
included a letter from the Chief Medical Officer which orders doctors
to report dissenters to the government; this letter was condemned by
the British Medical Association as telling doctors to breach patient
confidentiality.
The Big Opt Out
http://www.thebigoptout.org
Media coverage of campaign launch (27.11.2006)
Row between government and BMA, and latest news (1.12.2006)
(Contribution by EDRI-member Foundation for Information Policy Research – UK)