Private companies could get access to millions of NHS medical records

The Government is considering giving firms access to a massive computer database which will contain the records of almost every man, woman and child in England.
The information is a goldmine for private companies, who could use it for medical research or for helping them to sell products to the NHS.
But privacy campaigners say they are "horrified" by the proposals which could see patients' postcodes, medical conditions and treatments - and in some circumstances, their names - passed on to third parties without their consent.
The database, part of a long-delayed scheme to give NHS staff access to computerised medical records, will hold details of almost all visits by patients to hospitals and GPs.
The plans have been dogged by controversy. Last week. ministers gave in to pressure from privacy campaigners and agreed that medics will have to gain the consent of patients before opening their computer records. Yet patients will have almost no control over the same information being passed on to companies and other bodies outside the NHS.
The Department of Health says most records passed onto third parties would be made anonymous, but admits that identifiable data - which could include patient names - could also be handed on if it was deemed to be more useful.

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The Data Protection Act is dead and buried !!