The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has written a letter to all GPs and hospital medical directors telling them that if patients try to opt out of the central collection of their medical data, the Secretary of State must be told. This follows a campaign that I’ve been helping and that has attracted strong support – in the press, from GPs and from public opinion.

This letter orders GPs to break patient confidentiality – and apparently for the noble purpose of news management. I understand that at least one GP will be reporting Sir Liam to the General Medical Council. It is entirely up to the patient to decide whether to send an opt-out letter to their GP, to Ms Hewitt, or to both. It is not for a civil servant – even a very grand one like Sir Liam – to unilaterally override the wishes of those patients who decide to write to their GP but not to Ms Hewitt. (It’s also somewhat amusing as, only a month ago, officials were telling patients who tried to opt out that their GPs would decide whether to upload data.)

Developing …

The Register reports a leaked document from the NHS which concludes that sensitive patient records would probably be safer held locally, rather than stored on a national database as the Government proposes.

This follows a poll last week in which a majority of GPs said they would not upload their patients’ records to the national database. Together the poll and the leak are a double whammy for the misguided and wasteful project to centralise all computer systems in the NHS.

On Wednesday we are launching a campaign to persuade patients to opt out too. The inaugural meeting will be from 7 to 9 PM in Imperial College, London. For background, see recent posts on opting out and on kids’ databases.