What can I say? This is another step towards privatisation in outsourcing what should be an NHS project to private American company, just like Tony Blair did with so much of the British state sector when he took power in 1997. There are warning lights all over this, especially regarding patient confidentiality. The Tories have shown themselves all too willing to share confidential patient information with private healthcare companies, and I’ve got a feeling this is a scheme that has come up and then dropped only to resurface again over the past few years. I’ve definitely signed this petition.
‘David, our NHS data could be about to end up in the hands of a big US tech company. [1]
Under plans to build a new centralised NHS database, for-profit tech giants could soon have access to our medical history. The Government is about to award a £500 million contract to build the database to a big tech company. [2] The frontrunner, Palantir, has a Trump-supporting CEO with links to anti-birth control start ups. [3] It’s alarming – but nothing is set in stone.
That’s why, together, we need to shine the spotlight on these questionable deals being negotiated right now. A huge petition, signed by hundreds of thousands of us, is the perfect first step in kicking off a massive campaign that leaves the Government in no doubt that we, the British people, demand that our NHS data doesn’t end up in the hands of big private tech companies.
So, David, will you sign the petition calling on Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, to keep NHS records out of the hands of big for-profit tech companies?
The NHS holds some of the richest sets of population-wide health data in the world but right now it’s largely stored in different GP offices, hospitals – all over the place. [4] To improve efficiency, the Government wants to bring it all together in a centralised database. It would help caregivers make quicker and more robust decisions and improve how the Government targets services and healthcare spending. [5]
Lots of us agree this needs to happen – but it needs to be done the right way, with patients put before profits. Because scandals, like Google’s AI firm DeepMind using NHS patient records to build their own apps, shows how powerful data in the wrong hands could be misused. [6]
That’s why back in 2014 when the Government tried to introduce this system, with the involvement of big private tech companies, we kicked off a massive campaign that gained heaps of press attention, got the NHS around our negotiating table and ultimately forced the Government to abandon their plans. [7] But the dust has settled and now they’re trying to quietly push this through again. We won then and with your help we can win again.
So, David, if you don’t want your personal NHS records in the hands of private tech giants, will you sign the petition calling on Health Secretary Steve Barclaly to keep our NHS data out of the hands of big tech companies?
Thanks for everything you do,
Michael, Jonathan, Veronica and the 38 Degrees team
PS: While this would affect the overwhelming majority of people in England, some people have already opted out of having their data shared.
NOTES:
[1] The Guardian: ‘Our health data is about to flow more freely, like it or not’: big tech’s plans for the NHS
openDemocracy: Exclusive: NHS hospitals told to share patient data with US ‘spy-tech’ firm
This Is Money: Doctors to sue the Government over plans that could hand NHS patients medical records to a secretive US tech giant
[2] See note 1
[3] See note 1
[4] See note 1
[5] See note 1
[6] BBC News: Meta settles Cambridge Analytica scandal case for $725m
BBC News: DeepMind faces legal action over NHS data use
[7] 38 Degrees: NHS Care.data: We’ve won a breakthrough!
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