Closed petition Stop NHS England from sharing patient medical records on national database

Closed on 7 October 2014

This spring, NHS England will begin to harvest patients medical records, which they intend to upload on a national database. They claim that a patient's identity will remain anonymous, because only the patient's date of birth, postcode and NHS number will be stored. There is concern amongst campaigners and opponents of the scheme, that this information will fall into the hands of hackers, who will then publish the personal data on the internet or sold to drug companies who will target patients with products based on information about their illnesses. Opting out of the scheme has not be made straight forward either. This information could also be used by insurers to hike up premiums based of a family history of some diseases. The aim of this petition is to prompt the government into overturning its decision, given its previous history on the handling and storage of sensitive personal data.