Private health data will be sold to companies and researchers to help fund the NHS under controversial plans being considered by officials.
The proposals are expected to form part of the Government’s ten-year plan for the health service to be unveiled in the spring by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
While anonymised patient records are already sold, a new ‘National Health Data Service’ will ease the currently ‘complicated’ and disjointed process of accessing patient data.
But the professor charged with reviewing the sale of medical data has warned that the public may find it “disgusting” when multinationals buy their records.
The government-backed review into the way the NHS stores and uses data, carried out by Cathie Sudlow, professor of Neurology and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, has called for a central service to monitor and store the information.
The idea is gaining support across Whitehall departments, the Financial Times reported.
The most controversial part of the plan is likely to revolve around the pricing of medical data, which experts have warned will fuel public concern about profiteering in private medical information.
Professor Sudlow said there had already been “a lot of reflection and ongoing debate” (within the government body’s Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS and the Office of Life Sciences) about the pricing of health data.
Private health data will be sold to companies and researchers to help fund the NHS under controversial plans being considered by officials (file photo)
The proposals are expected to form part of the government’s ten-year plan for the health service to be unveiled in the spring by Health Secretary Wes Streeting (file photo).
He told the Financial Times that the proposals under consideration would ensure that “benefits can be realized for patients and the public”.
The data would be anonymous and therefore could not be linked to individual patients.
But he said any changes should be handled carefully.
“The idea of large multinational companies profiting from the NHS is not popular with many people, and the notion of direct sales of data does not sit well with the public,” he said.
Their report warned that “an overemphasis on (data sales) damages trust” in the system.
Streeting has said that “data is the future of the NHS” and NHS England awarded a controversial £330m contract to US group Palantir’s technology, sometimes described as “spy technology”, and has been criticised. by human rights groups on the grounds that it can be abused for spying. private citizens.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting met staff during a visit to the London Ambulance Service headquarters in south Londo.
While anonymized patient records are already sold, a new “National Health Data Service” will ease the currently “complicated” process of accessing patient data (file photo)
The British Medical Association called it “deeply worrying” that the American giant, which has close ties to defense and intelligence agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, is handling sensitive details of British patients.
A paid adviser to Palantir is former Labor MP and colleague Tom Watson.
A government spokesperson said: ‘We welcome Sudlow’s comprehensive review and are considering the recommendations ahead of the next spending review, life sciences sector plan and ten-year health plan. Our priority will always be to ensure that data is used for the benefit of patients.’