article_snippet: Professor Sir Brian Jarman, NHS data expert:
article_snippet: Controversial plans for a new NHS database face growing concerns following the Mail’s revelation that lists of people with medical problems are being touted for sale by unscrupulous data firms.
article_snippet: Doctors have already expressed ‘grave doubts’ about the NHS plan – called care.data.
article_snippet: Under the scheme, details from every patient’s GP medical file will be put on one huge database and shared with drug companies.
article_snippet: Officials say one huge database will be kept secure and anonymous.
article_snippet: But many doctors have expressed misgivings concerns about the project, with the NHS’s top data expert, Professor Sir Brian Jarman, saying last night he was still ‘very worried’ about the project.
article_snippet: Today the Mail reveals how lists of people with medical problems are being treated as potentially rich pickings for those looking to exploit the vulnerable.
article_snippet: Those whose medical details had been sold on said that being on such a list meant Those whose medical details had been sold on were constantly cold called – with some offered apparently unregulated treatments and medicines by unscrupulous firms.
article_snippet: Critics are likely to feel that if such information was compiled on to one huge database, which was then shared with commercial companies such as drug manufacturers, the risk that it could be used by firms wanting to target the sick could be just too great.
article_snippet: Sir Brian, a senior government health adviser, said: ‘This is the most confidential information you can have on patients.
article_snippet: Many doctors already believe it would be impossible to ensure the detailed information on patients contained in Many doctors GP files – which often includes private and sensitive discussions between doctor and patient – would not identify doctor and patient –.