Patient clinical records. Sharing. Disclosing. Confidentiality.

We thought it might be helpful to share two useful documents just lodged at the House of Commons Library: A paperless NHS: electronic health records and Patient health records and confidentiality. They are brief, but useful reference documents and contain the main links to valuable source material when dealing with tricky issues involving patient health records.

What is of particular interest is the high profile the Government attaches to electronic records (NHS “paper-free at the point of care” by 2020) and access to health records by patients in the next few years. It is also a useful reminder that the Care.data service is still due to be rolled out after what is euphemistically called “a pause”. A decision was taken in February 2014 to have a phased approach to implementation starting with a pathfinder stage. In July 2015 the Government announced that “no information will be collected until Dame Fiona Caldicott, the National Patient Data Guardian, confirms that she is satisfied with the Care.data pathfinder’s proposals and safeguards."

If you have any issues on sharing patient health records and confidentiality including disclosure, we are always happy to help.