Misuse of confidentiality to damage patients
- Revelations this week highlight the debate over how much families can be told about their relatives' medical details. Merope Mills on fresh challenges to the culture of secrecy. Guardian 3 October 2000.
- The Question: Dr Andrew Wakefield's claims about adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine are fuelling further controversy. Are parents right to hesitate over the triple inoculation? Guardian, 25 January 2001
- The Government plans to make independent scrutiny of the National Health Service a criminal offence in a move described as 'control
freakery' and 'totalitarian' by health campaigners.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn wants to outlaw awkward independent reports on standards and treatment in the
NHS, and rely on official studies to monitor all aspects of the service. Any group or individual trying to produce an independent report will be subject to heavy fines.
The Minister also wants to disclose patients' medical records to third parties for research purposes - even if they and their doctors object.
Patients' groups and doctors have accused Milburn of being 'Orwellian' and 'undemocratic' in the new Health and Social Care Bill. Clause 59 of the Bill, to be examined by Parliament this week, follows embarrassing reports into NHS care. It will mean patient and consumer groups will not be able to do spot checks on hospitals or clinics, or measure the effect of treatments. The Government will have powers to control the publication of reports into doctors' workloads, waiting times, conditions in hospitals and the quality of care. Studies into deaths resulting from infections picked up in hospital would be banned unless permitted by the Minister.
Observer 28 January 2001.
- The Government plans to make independent scrutiny of the National Health Service a criminal offence in a move described as 'control
freakery' and 'totalitarian' by health campaigners.
Health Secretary Alan Milburn wants to outlaw awkward independent reports on standards and treatment in the
NHS, and rely on official studies to monitor all aspects of the service. Any group or individual trying to produce an independent report will be subject to heavy fines.
The Minister also wants to disclose patients' medical records to third parties for research purposes - even if they and their doctors object. Dr Liam Fox in Guardian Society Thursday March 22, 2001
- Every time a doctor advises you about your health or decides how best to treat you, he or she is using the evidence provided by epidemiologists. Universal clean water and sewage facilities, and advising people not to smoke, were among their most famous ideas.
But all of this may have to come to an end. The General Medical Council (GMC) has decided that this kind of purely observational work is an infringement of patients' rights - even though it reveals nobody's identity and does nothing to alter or withold anyone's treatment. Guardian
Thursday April 12, 2001. See disregard
of confidentiality.
- The Guardian campaign for freedom of information. Blair 'big bang'
theory to delay freedom act. Guardian trawl of government departments
using Tory laws finds PM at odds with Lord Irvine over legislation already
long overdue. Rob Evans and David Hencke Guardian
Friday October 26, 2001
- Tony Blair's attempts to delay implementation of the Freedom of
Information Act have led to a confrontation with the commissioner who will
police the legislation. Guardian
Saturday November 10, 2001
- A health authority which has so far failed to warn patients of a former
healthcare worker infected with the Aids virus that they could be at risk,
began an appeal court battle yesterday to stop a Sunday newspaper naming
it. Guardian
Society Tuesday February 5, 2002
- Spending NHS money on ever slicker public relations could backfire on the
government, says Peter Davies. Society.
Thursday May 23, 2002
- Medical check-up. Steven Morris
Saturday September 7, 2002 The Guardian
- Clinical information is confidential. Or is it? James Meikle on powers
which change all that.
Saturday September 7, 2002 The Guardian
- Whistleblower lifts lid on NHS culture of secrecy. A senior health
service official who was fired after revealing his hospital's financial
problems yesterday lifted the lid on what he claims is the culture of
deception now endemic in the NHS. Jo Revill, health editor
Sunday January 26, 2003 The Observer
- Online commentary: The Observer today reports on the case of NHS
whistleblower Ian Perkin. Here he says that managers must be able to talk
honestly about the problems which the service faces.
Sunday
January 26, 2003
- Alan Milburn, the health secretary, has reneged on a government pledge to
allow NHS patients the right to correct inaccurate facts or opinions held on
their medical records. David Hencke, Westminster correspondent
Tuesday February 25, 2003 The Guardian
- Government ministers tried to suppress a health scare over milk
potentially contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals, the head of Britain's
independent food watchdog has revealed. Sir John Krebs said he was put under
'enormous pressure' not to make public the risks which arose from the handling
of the foot and mouth outbreak, because of the potential impact on struggling
dairy farmers. When the pressure from agriculture ministers failed, he was
told that Downing Street would be 'very unhappy' with him. Gaby Hinsliff and
Robin McKie
Sunday December 18, 2005 The Observer
- Survivors of Britain's contaminated blood scandal last night accused the
government of a cover-up after doubts emerged about the reasons for the
destruction of hundreds of critical documents. Earlier this year victims were
told that paperwork had been accidentally destroyed by an inexperienced civil
servant. However, letters seen by The Observer reveal that only senior
officers, who would have known that the 600 sensitive files should have been
stored for at least 25 years, would have been in a position to retain or
destroy them. The documents detailed meetings between the blood transfusion
service, health boards, government officials and consultants during the
Seventies and Eighties and contained critical information about what has
become one of the worst disasters in the history of the NHS. After several
victims lodged a freedom of information request earlier this year, they was
told they had been erroneously destroyed, some during the early Nineties and
the remainder between July 1994 and March 1998. They were the only records
relating to NHS policy which were 'inadvertently' destroyed during the
Nineties, and contained information on when precisely the government became
aware of the risks from imported blood and what measures were taken to warn
patients. In a further development, The Observer has learnt that the shredded
documents were the same ones the Tory government had gone to extreme lengths
to suppress in 1990. When a judge ruled that they must be released, ministers,
in an apparent attempt to avoid handing them over, announced a spectacular
U-turn, offering an immediate out-of-court settlement to around 1,200 victims,
mainly haemophiliacs, who had contracted HIV from imported blood products. It
is the only time the government has sanctioned 'compensation' without
negligence first being proved by a court. Victims were urged, some say
coerced, into accepting the money. Lorna Martin
Sunday April 23, 2006 The Observer
- Number 10 hiding blood scandal facts Inquiry finds the truth on
shredding was withheld after infected transfusions killed 1,700 patients.
An independent public inquiry into how thousands of haemophiliacs contracted
HIV or hepatitis C from contaminated blood discovered last night that Downing
Street is withholding crucial information about how hundreds of relevant
documents were shredded. More than 1,700 patients died and many more are now
terminally ill as a result of one of the biggest medical disasters of recent
times, when haemophiliacs were given infected blood clotting products during
the late Seventies and early Eighties. The products came from American
prisoners who were allowed to sell their blood even though there were fears
about the risks of contamination. But it has since emerged that many of the
files detailing the scandal were shredded by civil servants in the Nineties.
This week, the second hearing of the contaminated blood inquiry, chaired by
the former Solicitor-General, Lord Archer of Sandwell, will ask why the
results of an internal inquiry into the destruction of crucial files are being
withheld. Jenny Willott, Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, has
discovered that Downing Street is holding back the report, carried out by the
Department of Health in 2000, when Alan Milburn was Health Secretary. Some of
the destroyed documents detailed meetings between the blood transfusion
service, health boards, government officials and consultants during the
Seventies and Eighties. The records also contained information on when
precisely the government became aware of the risks from imported blood and
what measures were taken to warn patients. Jo Revill, Whitehall editor
Sunday May 20, 2007 Observer
- HIV transfusion victims unaware of virus for decades, inquiry told.
People infected with HIV after receiving contaminated blood transfusions are
still unaware of their status and are at risk of infecting others with the
disease, the public inquiry into Britain's haemophilia scandal was told
yesterday. The government has done little to follow up such victims - many of
whom contracted the disease after just one blood transfusion in the mid-1980s
and have lived with the condition for more than 20 years. In the cases which
have come to light, patients have only been diagnosed following years of
ill-health. It is feared they may have unwittingly infected others. Though the
numbers affected may be small, it is a "serious problem", said Peter Stevens,
who chairs the Eileen Trust support fund. The revelation of a hidden group of
people who contracted HIV through contaminated blood transfusions between 1983
and 1986 emerged as an independent public inquiry into how haemophiliacs were
given contaminated blood sat for a third day of evidence yesterday. A total of
4,670 people with haemophilia were infected with hepatitis C between the late
1970s and mid-1980s, of whom 1,200 were also infected with HIV. Sarah Hall
Tuesday June 5, 2007 The Guardian
- Former minister raises fear of HIV blood cover-up. New concerns are
raised today that government officials attempted to cover up evidence that
they could have stopped thousands of people becoming infected with HIV from
contaminated blood supplies. Lord Owen, who was a Labour health minister in
the 1970s, says he has unearthed the first concrete proof that officials knew
more than 30 years ago that there was an increased risk of contracting
hepatitis from imported blood products. More than 1,700 people went on to die
and many are terminally ill after contracting hepatitis C and then HIV from
infected blood during treatment for haemophilia in the 1970s and 80s. Lord
Owen, who as health minister pledged that Britain would no longer import blood
products, has found a document from the Department of Health which shows
officials knew in February 1976 that imported blood products were "more
costly" to the NHS and came with a "higher hepatitis risk" - something that
has been consistently denied. The discovery comes ahead of Lord Owen's
appearance today at the independent public inquiry into the contaminated blood
scandal, chaired by the former solicitor-general Lord Archer of Sandwell. Lord
Owen is expected to query why several volumes of documents relating to the
issue were destroyed at a time when a similar HIV-tainted blood scandal was
erupting in France. Sarah Hall
Wednesday July 11, 2007 The Guardian
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