HC Deb 28 April 1994 vol 242 cc307-8W
Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she plans to publish guidance on confidentiality in the use and disclosure of national health service information.

Mr. Sackville

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave her on 21 January at column888. We hope to issue this draft guidance, for consultation, shortly.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what rights general practitioners have to sell computerised data on patients.

Mr. Sackville

The disclosure of patient data outside the national health service, whether computerised or manually held and whether for a fee or not, is subject to the common law of confidentiality. Computerised data are also subject to the Data Protection Act 1984. Patient data should not be released outside the NHS without the patient's consent unless disclosure can be justified in the public interest. Data may also be disclosed if required by court order or statute.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to enable patients' notes to be used in the interests of the national health service where it conflicts with interests of patients.

Mr. Sackville

We have no such plans. Patients' notes are compiled primarily for the care and treatment of the individual patient. However, the information in them may be used to help with planning and managing the national health service, and monitoring and maintaining the public health to benefit individual patients and the population as a whole. Most of these wider functions require only anonymised data, and confidentiality is strictly maintained throughout.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to define the need to know in relation to access by non-clinicians to patients' notes in the national health service; and to what parts of the patients' notes managers should have access.

Mr. Sackville

Advice on this will be included in the draft guidance on the confidentiality, use and disclosure of personal health information which we plan to issue for consultation shortly. Patient information is used only on a strict need-to-know basis within the national health service, including bodies acting on behalf of the NHS, for care and treatment and for other NHS purposes. Only that part of the information which a recipient needs to know to fulfil his responsibilities may be disclosed, and the information should be anonymised unless it is essential for the recipient to know the patient's identity.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what access patients may have to their own primary care notes; and to what extent this applies to older notes.

Mr. Sackville

National Health Service bodies have been asked to encourage informal, voluntary arrangements for patients to see their records at the discretion of the health professional principally responsible for their clinical care. Under the Data Protection Act 1984 patients have a right of access to all personal information held on computer, subject to safeguards to protect themselves from serious harm and prevent the identification of third parties. They also have the right of access to their manual health records subject to similar safeguards under the Access to Health Records Act 1990, which applies to records compiled on or after its operative date of 1 November 1991. Access to manual records compiled before that date is at the discretion of the record-holder.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the agencies outside the national health service which have access to patients' notes.

Mr. Sackville

Patient information may not be disclosed to any agencies outside the national health service unless the patient consents, or unless disclosure can be justified in the public interest or is required by court order or statute.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance she has issued in relation to primary computers accessing hospital computer systems including clinical records.

Mr. Sackville

Communications between computers in primary care with computers in hospitals are by predetermined messages which comply with strict standards ensuring security. Such messages do not involve access by one computer to records held in another. If access of that type is proposed in future, strict security guidance will be issued to control it.

Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health who is the final arbiter within a hospital in relation to confidentiality of patients' notes.

Mr. Sackville

National health service bodies and staff have a legal duty of confidence towards patients. Decisions on the use or disclosure of information in patients' notes are the responsibility of the health service body but are usually taken by, or after consultation with, the health professional principally responsible for a patient's care and treatment.