Douglas Carswell

Online medical records? Brussels says "non"

I've just made the switch from online banking to using a mobile banking app. Just a few taps on the screen, and I can call up all my bank details in an instant.

So why can't we do the same with our medical records? Our medical data, like our financial details, needs to be secure. But if banks can manage it, why not the NHS?

Imagine how different life would be if all our bank records were maintained at our local bank branch. We'd probably find ourselves having to pop in all the time, like our grandparents had to. Each time we wanted to do something financial, there would be a need to verify what was written on the ledger in the back office of our local branch.

I can't help thinking that that is a little bit like the way that we manage medical records today.

One GP recently told me that the reason her patients prefer not to see a doctor out of hours is that the doctor simply does not have access to their records out of hours. Another tells me that with each person's medical records tied to one particular surgery, it is impractical for folk to be able to make appointments with a neighbouring GP surgery if their own happens to be
fully booked that day.

But just imagine if our own medical records could be called up on an ipad – by us, or more importantly, by our doctor?

Imagine, too, how much aggregated data digitalised records could produce, allowing resources to be more efficiently allocated in different areas? Of course privacy needs to be respected. Just like it is with online banking. But the advantages could be enormous.

So what is stopping us for getting on with it? Just as technology is about to allow us to do something really new and amazing, rather like China under the Ming, along comes a decree from the mandarins banning it. EU officials want to forbid the idea of digitalised medical records. Data protection issues, they say.

On that basis, surely one ought to look to ban online banking, too? And what about those Tesco store cards, that allow the supermarkets to know what I want to buy and when?

On second thoughts, perhaps we should not go giving the mandarinate ideas.

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