Care.data programme closed.
NHS England has been trying to use the information contained in patients medical records to improve the delivery of healthcare and for medical research in a programme called Care.data. But it has faced problems with the security of the data, what it is going to be used for and how patients can consent to how that data is used. On 6th July a report was published by the Care Quality Commission looking into data security across the NHS. The report was critical of about how NHS England has approached getting consent to access information contained in patients medical records and following publication of this report NHS England has announced that the Care.data programme has been closed. As part of our new patients registration process we have always asked patients if they are happy to share their medical information with the Care.data programme but since the programme has now come to an end we can removed that from our sharing consent form and perhaps get it onto one side of A4 now!