HSCIC Unable To Deal With Volume Of care.data Opt-Outs

Although the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) received 700,000 care.data opt-outs, those responsible have admitted that they will not be able to honour the wishes of these patients.

The care.data scheme intended to create a centralised database of patient records but it has been hit by problems from the start.

Last year, the scheme was indefinitely delayed following a great volume of concern surrounding privacy and security.

Those who did not wish to have their personally identifiable information passed from the HSCIC to third parties were able to opt-out (Type 2 objections) from having their data shared but the Centre has now claimed it doesn’t have the resources to deal with the volume of objections.

The organisation has also admitted it cannot deal with a problem in the wording of the opt-outs which prevents those who do opt-out from receiving essential information relating to other services such as e-prescribing, bowel screening, e-referrals or e-pathology.

These revelations came to light in written evidence to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee by HSCIC Chair Kingsley Manning.

HSCIC Working With Others To Resolve Situation

“Given these issues we are working with the Department of Health (DoH) and NHS England to clarify the nature and scope of the objection choice to be offered in replace of the Type 2 objection, as previously set out within the care.data programme,” claimed Manning in the letter.

“Subject to the Department’s advice and the verification of the number of objects already registered, HSCIC will need to designed and implement an appropriate mechanism and process for registering and implementing such objections.

“This make take some time if new business and technical processes need to be built and implemented to accommodate large numbers. We will not be in a position to implement Type 2 objections currently registered with GPs until this work is complete and we must be certain that any proposed solution cannot have any detrimental impact on a patient’s direct care,” he added.

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