A new system is planned this year to gather patient data held by GP surgeries in England, and feed it into a central NHS database. The scheme was due

GP data sharing: What is it and can I opt out?

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2021-06-22 21:00:09

A new system is planned this year to gather patient data held by GP surgeries in England, and feed it into a central NHS database.

The scheme was due to start in July, but it was recently delayed until September, over concerns from doctors' organisations that it was being pushed through too quickly.

Under the General Practice Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) system, information from GP surgeries in England will gathered by NHS Digital.

The database will collect information on patients' physical, mental and sexual health, including details of diagnoses, symptoms, test results, medication and immunisations.

NHS Digital points out that this information can already be extracted from GP practices at the moment, with 300 requests made last year.

But critics point out that approved third parties - such as researchers at universities, charities or private companies - will be able to access the data under certain circumstances.

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