Simon Stevens has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the NHS in England and will start in his post in April 2014. Stevens is the Executive Vice President of UnitedHealth Group and President for Global Health. He has been based in the USA in recent years. He has formerly worked as a NHS manager in England and as an adviser to Tony Blair when he as Prime Minister. Professor Malcolm Grant, Chairman of NHS England, said that Mr Stevens was the best man for the job because he could bring experience from many different models of healthcare delivery. His appointment has brought a mixed reaction in England. Many people view his appointment as NHS Chief Executive as a positive step, viewing him as someone who will bring innovative ideas and ways of working. Others are more wary and are concerned he may push further marketization and models of healthcare delivery derived from the USA.
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 for th
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