Summary: The chairman of the House of Commons Health Committee has brushed aside the confidentiality fears that have delayed the £12.5bn NHS summary care record database plan. Labour MP Kevin Barron attacked medical professionals for propagating " palpable nonsense" in suggesting the government will profit by selling the intended 60 million health records to pharmaceutical and insurance companies. He also accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of "scaremongering" with claims earlier this month that people were wrongly accessing records through the network. "My issue with some BMA members is that that is not a reason not to go ahead with using IT to bring health into the 21st century," he said in a Westminster Hall debate last week.
Summary: A key plank of the £6.8bn NHS IT upgrade project in England has come under attack from MPs. The Health Committee said there was a "worrying lack of progress" and raised concerns about the security of patients' electronic records. ... Committee chairman Kevin Barron, a Labour MP, said: "We still have some way to go before patients and the profession can see tangible benefits of the new system."
WIKI