Doctors ethics committee undecided on NCRS consent

The British Medical Association’s ethics committee has decided not to back any consent model for the NHS Care Records Service at the moment although the majority of its members support an opt-in system.

The committee, which met last week, looked at various models for how consent for access to the summary care record on the spine could work. The opt-out system proposed by Connecting for Health has faced strong criticism from some sections of the medical profession, particularly primary care, with both the BMA’s GP committee and the ethics committee of the Royal College of General Practitioners backing an opt-in model.

However a spokesperson for the BMA told EHI Primary Care that the ethics committee had decided more work was needed on the issue after last week’s meeting although no timetable for a future decision was set.

She added: “The majority of the committee supported an explicit consent model (opt-in) for the sharing of the summary record but felt that further discussion was needed.”

The committee heard a proposal from within its membership that a mixed model of consent be considered.

This would involve information being initially uploaded in text form without explicit consent although patients would be ‘made aware’ of the process and be able to opt-out. Later as patients attended routine consultations they would discuss whether or not they were happy to allow the upload of more detailed information.

This model is close to that supported by Professor Mike Pringle and Dr Gillian Braunold, Connecting for Health’s GP clinical leads, who proposed in their discussion document on the NCRS (link: http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/crdb/docs/a_step_on_the_journey.doc) that patients should have the opportunity to check their summary record and to consent to their sensitive data being added as they present opportunistically.

A spokesman for the ethics committee said the model outlined at the meeting was not supported.

She added: “This mixed model of implied and explicit consent was seen as cumbersome and involving a lot of work. It was argued that if patients were going to be actively involved in decisions about detailed information at the later stage, only relatively little extra effort would be needed to involve them actively at the start.”

Last month’s BMA General Practitioner Committee passed a recommendation that patient data to only be loaded up onto the NHS summary care record if patients have opted in to have their details shared.

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