to be appalled that the NHS is to give patient data to high street pharmascists

[mistymeanour]

Happened to see this today www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11790711/Boots-Tesco-and-Superdrug-to-get-access-to-NHS-medical-records.html

Apparently based on a study of 15 patients they are going ahead with giving the summary data on all NHS records to high street pharmacies such as Boots and Lloyd's etc. I am appalled - I don't want shop assistants having access to my data or otherpeople and various firms. I feel this is a complete breach of patient trust. We were not consulted. I filed a refusal form with my GP for the previous Tory push to give drug companies and insurance firms data but this has just been announced and is to roll out next month with no warning!

Apparently the summary data contans details of meds you have been prescribed but I know a medical summariser and the summary includes details of your conditionsand treatment. What if you don't want someone to know about a rape and abortion, or depression and mental illness you had meds for etc. Will people be only able to use the NHs in return for all their data? What ever happenedto confidentiality?

[Want2bSupermum]

In in two minds on this. Here in the Us I have a medical card with my vital information on it. The pharmacy can swipe the card and they input the script if not an Escript. If an escript any potential complications come up when the doctor selects the medication.

It's a good compromise because your history of scripts doesn't come up. It also really helps cut down on fraudulent scripts. We know we have certain groups where things like birth control are taboo. Why not design a process to take that into account.

[albertcamus]

As a former customer of Tesco pharmacy, I can say that I object to the following:

• my own & DH's prescriptions never being ready to be picked up ('please go shopping for 20-30 minutes while we make it up'), even days after the due date
  
• prescriptions not being ordered despite their being due
  
• constant shortage tickets given, even for common drugs, meaning yet another visit, queue & wait in the hope that it might be available on another day
  
• frighteningly thick staff
  
• arrogant pharmacist
  
  It's easy enough to take your business elsewhere by requesting that your repeat prescription is sent to an independent pharmacy.
  
  As for access to records, looking at the state of the Tesco staff, I would not trust them to be able to read or interpret it. What's wrong with trusting your GP ?

[britnay]

I think there are a lot of big egos here. Seriously, I dispense hundreds of prescriptions in a day. Contraception, water tablets, thrush cream, viagra, blah blah blah. I'm really not hugely interested in the vast majority of it once a patient is on something regularly and its working for them. I really couldn't care much less about who is on contraception. It seems daft to get it from another pharmacy.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

OldSu, what is it you think Gladys/the pharmacist is going to see that she doesn't already have access to?

If she was going to spread your medical details around, I'm sure she would have done it by now.

[RedDaisyRed]

Ah I see Oldsu's post is similar to mine! great minds...

The more people with access to your data the greater the risk. SDo if one GP surgery has it low risk. If the NHS (3rd biggest employer on this planet after the Red Army and Indian Civil service) which is full of people leaving stuff on trains and the like as the ICO website shows, much bigger risk.

[RedDaisyRed]

Big data is never good. Thankfully I hardly ever use the NHS (one GP trip in 10 years) and I take no pills of any kind so there cannot be much about me on the systems.

[Oldsu]

Oh and by the way I know medical receptionists and the like have access this is not the point we are making here actually as I have only been to my GP once in the last 10 years (apart from dropping off a repeat prescription request for my Thyroxin) my records would make very boring reading and would take them a few seconds to go through

The point is that people automatically assume that dissenters are paranoid when they question these things sorry its 2015 not 1915 we should have moved on from believing that just because the nice doctor or pharmacist tells us that something cant happen does not mean it never will.

[Oldsu]

PennyHassett if you actually took the time to read my post you would have read that I said smart card AND password.

I may not be a super dooper pharmacist with a masters degree but even I know you need a password as well as a smart card which is why I mentioned it in the first place
.

[Pneumometer]

Are you this paranoid about everything or just chemist why would va pharmacists tell a parent anything.

Why would a practice manager feel the need to read the records of nearly 2000 women, mostly in their 20s and 30s?

www.digitalhealth.net/news/28969/

[Mrsjayy]

Are you this paranoid about everything or just chemist why would va pharmacists tell a parent anything.

[Pneumometer]

And yes young people (I assume you mean young people who are Fraser Competent, rather than children) should complain.

How do you suggest they do that, without their parents finding out?

[PennyHassett]

And why would we do that? We have better things to do with our time.

And yes young people (I assume you mean young people who are Fraser Competent, rather than children) should complain. And they can opt out which will stop any access, but SCR access doesn't sound like the problem in this case.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

So you just access it anyway, and say that the patient gave consent. Who's to say otherwise?

I presume that's why the pharmacists themselves have raised the issue of consent and whether there should be written consent.

[Pneumometer]

Here is the form for opting out of the SCR:

www.umckent.co.uk/files/2015/03/scr-optoutform.pdf

Problem solved: HCPs can't access a record that isn't there.

[Pneumometer]

Oh, and if anyone needs it:

[Pneumometer]

No we can't - we can only see that it we have the need and the consent to access your SCR.

So you just access it anyway, and say that the patient gave consent. Who's to say otherwise?

[Pneumometer]

Those pharmacies should be reported to the GPhC.

Yeah, because the very thing that a child who wants to keep their contraceptive use from their parents should do to ensure that confidentiality is get involved with a correspondence with a regulatory body about confidentiality. I wonder how they'd explain all the letters to their parents?

[CPtart]

To someone who said that they wouldn't trust pharmacists because they look at everything with a business head, well as a practice nurse let me tell you that in this day and age so do GP's, and that includes what they choose (or not) to prescribe you.

[PennyHassett]

SCR will be heavily audited - It really isn't worth the risk to your career, unless you are very stupid indeed.

But now, when you go into your local pharmacy to pick up a prescription for something unremarkable, the staff there can see that you have a prescription for contraception, filled elsewhere. Now just going to another pharmacy isn't protection enough.

No we can't - we can only see that it we have the need and the consent to access your SCR. If you had a script for something unremarkable I would have no need to access your SCR.

Any of my staff found gossiping would be dismissed with immediate effect.

There is widespread discussion amongst my daughters' friends of this issue, and the general view is that pharmacies, in particular, are not to be trusted to not tell parents. That perception may be unfair, but there are a couple of accounts which show that the fear is not entirely unfounded.

Those pharmacies should be reported to the GPhC.

[Pneumometer]

nd yes I do understand the concerns that their SCR could be accessed without consent by family members checking up on them - However would break just about every IG rule and would result in the pharmacist concerned being struck-off.

If they got caught. Why would they?

[Pneumometer]

But pneunometer , there has always been potential for this - back when all information was handwritten and posted or couriers took it, more people probably got to see it

But now, when you go into your local pharmacy to pick up a prescription for something unremarkable, the staff there can see that you have a prescription for contraception, filled elsewhere. Now just going to another pharmacy isn't protection enough.

This is exactly why I opted out of the SCR, and also did so on behalf of my children (they can make their own decisions now they're adults). There will be occasions when, rightly or wrong, you do not trust the HCP in front of you and decide to go elsewhere. The SCR makes that pointless: each and every HCP can see the headline details of your records.

Cases of gossip by HCPs are not common, but are hardly unheard of:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2444622-To-think-this-nurse-should-not-have-revealed-patient-details-on-Facebook

There is widespread discussion amongst my daughters' friends of this issue, and the general view is that pharmacies, in particular, are not to be trusted to not tell parents. That perception may be unfair, but there are a couple of accounts which show that the fear is not entirely unfounded.

[ValancyJane]

I have no issues whatsoever, IMO a pharmacist in my local chemist being able to access my records is no different to going to see different doctors within my practice all of whom can access my records. Pharmacists are highly trained and well aware of the need for confidentiality. And in my experience they are so knowledgeable about the medicines (sometimes more than a GP) that I bet this will be a real benefit. My Nan was very ill in hospital last year due to a combination of medicines that didn't work well together, and it took the hospital a month to figure out that it was related to that and not her kidneys. I do wonder if this system had been in place if a pharmacist might have spotted the problem before my Nan became critically ill due to it.

[PennyHassett]

I'll see you later Rafa - I'll be there until 10pm.

[PennyHassett]

That is a completely different issue and concerns are regarding GPs and access to services. - I would imagine that young asian women would access an anonymous pharmacy rather than one owned by a family or community member. And yes I do understand the concerns that their SCR could be accessed without consent by family members checking up on them - However would break just about every IG rule and would result in the pharmacist concerned being struck-off.

It would be far easier to use a family planning clinic or a pharmacy offering a free NHS service, although I appreciate that they shouldn't have to do this.