NHS shares patient data with 1,500 outside organisations including Google...

[dutchman]

...but doesn't ask for permission because it's 'not practical'



The NHS shares patient data with 1,500 outside organisations including Google and doesn't ask first because it is 'not practical', it was revealed today.

The Royal Free hospital in north London has handed the private medical records of up to 1.6million patients to the internet giant and insists NHS rules mean that permission is 'implied'.

The revelation has exposed the ease with which private companies can obtain highly sensitive medical information without consent.

Explaining why they did not speak to patients first the Royal Free said: 'Health professionals may rely on implied consent when sharing personal data in the interests of direct care.

'The NHS has data sharing agreements with 1,500 third party organisations, many of which are vital to the safe and effective treatment of patients. It would not be practical or safe to ask every patient to consent to every one of these arrangements'.

The trust said that the data will not be sold on, adding in an online Q&A: 'Patients can opt out of any data-sharing system that the Royal Free London uses by contacting the trust’s data protection officer'.

It came as Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust admitted it was also in talks with Google over a deal - this time for an app to alert staff to hospital patients at risk of deterioration through kidney failure.

But bosses at St Mary's in Paddington, one of the hospitals overseen by the Trust, say that no patient records have been handed over to DeepMind - Google's secretive artificial intelligence arm.

It is not yet clear how many other NHS trusts or hospitals have already confirmed or are in talks to set up similar deals. It is also not known which organisations have existing deals with the NHS.

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[Melisandre]

Braking patient confidentuality when husbands can mot discuss or ask about their wives records or health and visa versa but they allow google to know I can see lots of people sueing over this. Why are mps and pm allowing this I ask my self.

[rebbonk]

It's the 'implied consent' that I take issue with. This is a situation where explicit consent ought be requested. For the authorities to say it's not practical, that's simply hogwash.