The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7428 p628
25 November 2006

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Doctors think patients should opt in to care records

Around half of GPs and other doctors are unwilling or unlikely to allow patients' medical records to be uploaded onto the national electronic database without patients' specific consent, according to a poll conducted by Medix.

This is in opposition to the Government’s plans for the NHS Care Record Service, which will see patients’ records automatically uploaded onto the database unless they opt out. Doctors’ main concerns are hackers and access by public officials outside the fields of health and social care. However, 51 per cent of GPs and 65 per cent of non-GPs believe electronic records will enable better clinical decision making, of whom 45 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively, say that some additional risk to patient confidentiality would be acceptable.

The poll, commissioned by the British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information Management, Computer Weekly, E-Health Insider, The Guardian and GP, surveyed 1,026 GPs, consultants and other doctors.