CONSULTANCY
A nationwide survey has shown that confidentiality concerns can impact on people’s health, and that patients demand guarantees of the privacy of their medical re- cords.
An independent poll of 1,001 peo- ple found that the public believes hospital chief executives and man- agers should be held accountable for protecting privacy.
Almost four in ten would put off seeking treatment from a hospital with a poor reputation for data se- curity, and almost half would with- hold information from clinicians.
73.3% felt that better enforcement of rules and regulations would cut security breaches and 87.2% ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ agree that the NHS should monitor who looks at their files.
Kurt Long, CEO of FairWarning, which commissioned the survey, said: “Modern patient care is very much information-based. Any ob- stacle to the free flow of informa- tion between care providers and patients, such as those caused by privacy concerns, can prevent pa- tients from receiving the best pos- sible care.
“Patients across the UK have enor- mous faith in the NHS, but this survey reveals that more needs to be done for medical informa- tion to be shared and exchanged securely, and so to ensure the best patient outcomes.”
Ted Boyle, a specialist healthcare IT consultant, said: “It is vital for the future of the NHS that pa- tient information can be freely exchanged between the clinicians.
“At the same time patients have
a right to expect that sensitive in- formation about them will remain confidential.
“For this to happen it is essential that advanced security systems are in place to monitor exactly who is accessing people’s records in or- der to prevent patient data from being abused.”
A total of 41 respondents (over 4% of those polled) claimed that their medical records had already been breached.
Some have had information used against them in legal actions, had their identities stolen, or suffered financially.
However, 75.5% of the patients asked said that they do value elec- tronic records as a way for clini- cians to share information and keep it up-to-date.
national health executive Nov/Dec 11 | 87
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100