p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- In a significant concession in data protection policy, National Health Service patients in Britain will be able to delete electronic summaries of their treatment records from a new national medical database, says The Guardian.

The decision follows talks between health service officials and the Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO), says the story, going on:

“Until recently the Department of Health had resisted pressure from sceptical patients and doctors critical of the security risks generated by confidential records being transmitted across the NHS broadband computer network known as the Spine.

“Last month, officials described the cost of deleting individual summary care records (SCRs) from the system as prohibitive. The Department of Health had offered instead to ‘mask’ or ’suppress’ unwanted files, making them difficult to access a process that would nonetheless leave personal details on the database.”

SCRs are being introduced NHS-wide  to provide clinical staff with patient information, says the story.

But, it has Dr Gillian Braunold, a medical director of the programme, acknowledging a “significant minority” of people “don’t want to have a summary care record”.

The new position,was, “the deletion option is there if [individuals] are not happy They can choose to have [their SCR] deleted physically.”

The only exception would be if a patient’s SCR file had already been used, “in which case it would be archived for ‘medico-legal’ reasons.”

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The Guardian – NHS patients given right to delete electronic record, May 26, 2009