§ Mr. Powellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services under what powers local health executive councils are supplying the names and other particulars of National Health Services patients for the purpose of the morbidity survey supported by his Department.
§ Sir K. JosephTo the limited extent that this involves anything beyond the normal assistance executive councils give in the compilation of practice registers they are acting as my agents under the powers in Section 16(1) of the National Health Service Act, 1946 enabling me to assist in the conduct of medical research. No medical information is supplied by executive councils for the purposes of the survey.
§ Mr. Powellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether he will withdraw his support and cooperation from the morbidity survey so long as it involves the disclosure by general practitioners of their patients' consultations and medical episodes in any manner which enables these to be identified with any individual;
(2) whether the permission of National Health Service patients has been obtained, whether in writing, or otherwise to their consultations and medical episodes being supplied by their family doctors for the purposes of the morbidity survey which his Department is supporting;
(3) what steps he will take to ensure that the occupations of individual named National Health Service patients are not collected and disclosed for the purposes of the morbidity survey supported by his Department.
§ Sir K. JosephMy Department and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, at the request of the Royal College of General Practitioners, are collaborating with the Royal College in this survey. Its purpose is to study current patterns of morbidity in general practice and to assess any changes which have taken place since the previous survey in 1955–56, the results of which were published between 1958 and 1962. The survey is designed to establish statistically the incidence and prevalence of disease and is the only source of national information about general morbidity not 391W treated in hospital. It will provide information which will be of great value in the prevention and treatment of illness. The published results will not of course disclose information about individuals and the information supplied by the doctors about each consultation is limited to the date and diagnostic code. Some method of identification is, however, required to enable the analysis to distinguish between illnesses affecting different people and those affecting the same person in the course of the survey year. For this purpose names will be supplied by the doctors but these will be coded immediately on receipt and the records will be returned to the doctors after coding is completed. No record of names will be retained. Since there is no breach of traditional medical confidentiality the permission of individual patients has not been obtained. Occupational details are important as pointers towards possible relations between socio-economic factors and illness.
I understand that evidence on the general question of use of medical information for research will be given to the Committee on Privacy by the Medical Research Council and I am asking the Council to have particular regard to ways of protecting privacy where means of identification are needed for research purposes.
§ Mr. Powellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish the names of the 55 general practitioners in England and Wales who are supplying, for the purposes of the morbidity survey supported by his Department, the names and particulars of the consultations and medical episodes of their patients.
§ Sir K. JosephThe names of the general practitioners will be published, as before, with the report of the survey.