Pharmacists' disclosure of anonymised prescription data does not amount to a breach of confidentiality, three judges ruled in the Appeal Court on December 21.
Giving a reserved judgment in a case that had begun on November 29, 1999, (PJ, December 18/25, 1999, p971) the judges upheld an appeal by Source Informatics Ltd, a prescription database company, against a High Court ruling in May that the sale of such data was illegal because it involved breaching patient confidentiality (PJ, June 5, 1999, p794). The company had brought the case to challenge guidelines produced by the Department of Health to prohibit such sales.
Lord Justice Simon Brown said that Source had no interest in patients' identities but every interest in the date of prescription, the product prescribed and the quantity prescribed. Because the information was anonymised, there was only a remote risk that certain information of a rare kind might conceivably enable a patient to be identified.
The judge ruled: "Pharmacists' consciences ought not reasonably to be troubled by co-operation with Source's proposed scheme. The patient's privacy will have been safeguarded, not invaded. The pharmacist's duty of confidence will not have been breached."
He added: "If the Department continue to view such schemes as operating against the public interest, then they must take further powers in this already heavily regulated area to control or limit their effect. The law of confidence cannot be distorted for the purpose. I would accordingly allow this appeal."
Source Informatics was awarded its legal costs. The DoH was refused permission to appeal further to the House of Lords.