UK Police Will Have Backdoor Access To Health Records 108
kc123 writes "David Davis MP, a former shadow home secretary, has told the Guardian that police would be able to access the new central NHS database without a warrant as critics warn of catastrophic breach of trust. The database that will store all of England's health records has a series of 'backdoors' that will allow police and government bodies to access people's medical data. In the past police would need to track down the GP who held a suspect's records and go to court for a disclosure order. Now, they would be able to simply approach the new arms-length NHS information centre, which will hold the records. The idea that police will be able to request information from a central database without a warrant totally undermines a long-held belief in the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship."
Re:Unbelievable (Score:4, Informative)
Although the Hippocratic Oath does entreat physicians to keep patient information secret, it also asks the practitioner to pray to some fairly obscure deities (and I would point out that His Noodliness is not among them), prohibits assisted suicide and abortion (at least with a pessary) and to keep one's daughters in the dark. So it's a bit of a wash in the 21st Century.
But it does point out that, once you put something into a computer database, it's pretty easy to get it out.
We should go back to stone tablets.