NHS Choices is a service that aims to give patients and the public information about their health and healthcare. The service is intended to help patients and the public make decisions choices about their health, from lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking and exercise, through to the practical aspects of finding and using NHS services in England. My practice now has a page on NHS choices, which we have now updated. In coming months, we will be aiming to make more use of the facilities available via NHS Choices to support our patients.
As part of a session on primary care data in the Health Informatics module on the Imperial Master of Public Health Programme, I asked students to work in two groups to present arguments for and against the NHS Care.Data programme. Care.Data is an NHS programme that will extract data from the medical records held by general practitioners (GPs) in England. The Care.Data programme takes advantage of the very high level of use of electronic medical records by GPs in England. After extraction, data will be uploaded to the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). The data will then be used for functions such as health care planning, monitoring disease patterns and research. The programme has been controversial with proponents arguing that the programme will bring many benefits for the NHS and the population of England; and opponents arguing it is a major breach of privacy. You can view the two presentations to help inform you further about these arguments: Arguments fo...
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