This is a very worrying development. According to the Wirral Globe, the local PCT is about to ship details of personal records off-shore to a US based company.
The issues arising are huge:
Firstly: people are opted-in by default. Now I suspect that the Information Commisioner would have something to say about that. Recently, the IC stated over the Phorm affair that the default position MUST be opt-out in order to comply with the law. (See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/09/ico_phorm_tougher/)
I would strongly suspect if a good burgher of the Wirral contacted the IC they might well get a similar result!
Secondly, the guff that the PCT has spouted: "the initial health data it wants to share with Health Dialog would be “unidentifiable” and “cannot be linked directly back to you”. "
Eh? What's the bloody point then of off-shoring it!? I cannot make head or tail of that statement to be honest.
The idea is to use an US company to act as a health advice line and to do that they are shipping the patient's record oversea. But "initially" (that worries me a lot) the data would be unidentifiable. So what "initially" would be the point of having it if it can't be used to help individuals who call in?
http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/3226424.U_S_FIRM_TO_HAVE_ALL_YOUR_HEALTH_DETAILS/
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