The Government plans to introduce a data sharing scheme called General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR). The Green Party are opposed to the GPDPR and we are concerned about the privacy of patients and that the collected data would be used by private firms with commercial interests. Even though the data will be pseudonymised, medical histories are personal and there is still a risk that the patients could be re-identified.
Under the GPDPR scheme the data records for 6.1 million NHS patients will be opened up to third parties, unless the individuals opt out. The data would be held in a single database and made available to researchers and private firms. Without proper safeguards in place, the data could be easily exploited by companies with commercial interests such as insurers, leasing companies and lenders.
In his article Peter Cranie, the health spokeperson for the Green Party, says: ‘Let there be no mistake, this is part of an ideological drive to give private companies the opportunity to make money from our most personal data.’
He continues to explain that in the long run the scheme will have financial repercussions, as these plans could enable US health companies to profit off the back of processing of the data and then NHS having to buy it back with the cost to taxpayers.
The Green Party opposed the scheme when it was first proposed by the coalition Government under care.data programme in 2013 and we were part of the successful campaign to have the idea scrapped.
The Green Party’s General Election manifesto promised the ‘end of sale of personal data, such as health or tax records, for commercial and other ends’ and it is in this spirit that we oppose these plans to centralise medical data to provide access to third parties.
Sign and share the petition ‘Don’t share our health data for profit’ started by OpenDemocracy.
