What’s happening to your GP data and what can you do about it?
Health data is both hugely sensitive and immensely valuable – to our health, and to big business. The UK’s NHS data has been valued at £10bn. And our GP data – with details of everything from diagnoses and medications to depression, abortions, sexually transmitted infections and addictions – is the most detailed, valuable and sensitive of all.
1 July 2021, 12.01am
On 12 May this year, then health secretary Matt Hancock quietly issued a legal direction to every GP in England, instructing them to upload their patient records to a central database, with patients given just a few weeks to find out about the plans.
openDemocracy, along with a coalition of other groups, issued a legal threat that has forced the government to pause the process. But what does this mean for your health data, what will happen next, and what can you do about it?
Hear from:
Helen Salisbury GP, lecturer, and writer for the British Medical Journal
Diarmaid McDonald Lead organiser, Just Treatment
Phil Booth Coordinator, MedConfidential
Chair, Caroline Molloy Editor, openDemocracy UK
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Chair: Ramzy Alwakeel Head of news at openDemocracy
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