It has been a while since I had a pop at the GMC, but this cannot be ignored.
In a nutshell: Identifiable patient records will be disclosed in the name of medical research if new guidelines on patient confidentiality are passed under an ethics review by the General Medical Council in July. And the new policy seems to be in contravention of EU law, raising the possibility that sharing patients' records for research will become "ethical but illegal"
The panel that proposed the new guidelines included Sir Mark Walport, director of medical research charity the Wellcome Trust. The group decided doctors should be allowed to make identifiable patient records available to researchers, provided it can be "justified in the public interest" and that tracking down patients to ask permission would require "unreasonable effort".
Such guidance appears to run contrary to EU privacy laws. According to data security expert Professor Ross Anderson, EU law gives patients "a right to forbid their doctor to give their medical data to anyone who isn't involved in their case". From mid-September, when the new GMC guidelines are expected to be formalised, releasing named patient data will be "ethical but illegal", he says.
Such concerns might seem almost trivial when set against the possibility of scientific advances in the fight against cancer, for example. But medical histories can be valuable.
As public policy writer John Elledge points out on The First Post, everyone from potential employers to mortgage lenders would pay a lot of money to check whether you have a chronic condition or a family history of sudden death. "Many would pay enough money, in fact, for safeguards like the Data Protection Act to seem nothing more than a mild inconvenience," he writes.
The Piss Poor GMC has a remit-The General Medical Council (GMC) is an independent, statutory, UK wide body whose purpose is to protect, promote and maintain the health of the population by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine.
Under the Medical Act 1983 the GMC have four main responsibilities: keeping an up to date register of qualified doctors, fostering good medical practice, promoting high standards of medical education and dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is called into question.
This includes setting the standards and outcomes for basic medical education in the UK, which covers undergraduate education and the first year of training after graduation. We also run a quality assurance programme for UK medical schools to ensure those standards and outcomes are achieved. Quality assuring standards involves inspection visits and gathering information from the various bodies involved in the education and training of new doctors.
So WTF are they doing buggering about with Patient Confidentiality, the GMC “law” is clear-
6. Confidentiality is central to trust between doctors and patients. Without assurances about confidentiality, patients may be reluctant to seek medical attention or to give doctors the information they need in order to provide good care. But appropriate information sharing is essential to the efficient provision of safe, effective care, both for the individual patient and for the wider community of patients.
7. You should make sure that information is readily available to patients explaining that, unless they object, their personal information may be disclosed for the sake of their own care and for local clinical audit. Patients usually understand that information about them has to be shared within the healthcare team to provide their care. But it is not always clear to patients that others who support the provision of care might also need to have access to their personal information. And patients may not be aware of disclosures to others for purposes other than their care, such as service planning or medical research. You must inform patients about disclosures for purposes they would not reasonably expect, or check that they have already received information about such disclosures.
12. You must make sure that any personal information about patients that you hold or control is effectively protected at all times against improper disclosure.
Yes, I agree that the doctor treating me must have access to my medical records, and the nurses treating me, and the members of the Multi Discipline Team (MDT), but not some pointy head, white coated geek in a research facility, why is it necessary to know my name, my address, my phone number and my next of kin?
Do I want my medical history made available to the Wellcome Trust? No I don’t, do I want it made available to anyone who can pay for it? NO.
This piss poor policy change wanted by the GMC is a massive step backward for patients, and after all the GMC remit does not include changing the law, and inviting doctors to break it:- According to the UK General Medical Council, who are responsible for regulating the medical profession. One of the key responsibilities of a doctor is to “respect and protect confidential information” (source: GMC Standards of Practice). Other professional groups have similar rules.
For example, registered nurses and midwifes, must protect confidential information:
“You must treat information about patients and clients as confidential and use it only for the purposes for which it was given.”
“You should seek patients' and clients' wishes regarding the sharing of information with their family and others.”
It is unethical for the GMC to review this part of its ethics policy, patient records are sacrosanct, and should not be treated as an EBay auction.
Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry
AnglishLit
Angus Dei politico
No comments:
Post a Comment