{"id":582509,"date":"2025-11-20T12:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/582509\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:32:18","slug":"uk-poised-to-open-up-covid-era-data-despite-doctors-fears-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/582509\/","title":{"rendered":"UK poised to open up Covid-era data despite doctors\u2019 fears \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of doctors has warned the government that the move could erode patient trust. While the direction says government will obtain patient consent to share the data more broadly, doctors groups are worried this won\u2019t happen in practice, and that patients won\u2019t be aware their data is being funneled to other studies.<\/p>\n<p>NHS England\u00a0has been in discussions with the\u00a0Joint GP IT Committee, which\u00a0comprises\u00a0representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA) and Royal College of General Practitioners\u00a0(RCGP),\u00a0about the data,\u00a0a person close to the talks told POLITICO.<\/p>\n<p>DHSC confirmed it had been in dialogue with the doctors\u2019 groups, and a spokesperson said it had delayed signing the direction in order to engage with doctors\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n<p>The JGPITC\u00a0argued it\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0been properly consulted on the change\u00a0in line with established governance processes,\u00a0and that repurposing the dataset without asking patients\u2019 permission\u00a0risks damaging already-fragile\u00a0public confidence in the profession, the same person\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"663\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8465012-1024x663.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7526208\"  \/>While the direction says government will obtain patient consent to share the data more broadly, doctors groups are worried this won\u2019t happen in practice, and that patients won\u2019t be aware their data is being funneled to other studies. | Pool photo by Hannah McKay\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>It comes after\u00a0the same group of doctors filed a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office in June alleging that NHS England had breached data protection law by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/doctors-nhs-data-watchdog-patient-data-ai-uk-england-covid-pandemic-labour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">training a general-purpose AI model<\/a>\u00a0on the same dataset without consent. The disagreement is also set against the wider backdrop of a long-running dispute between government and the BMA over doctors\u2019 pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n<p>DHSC maintains that proper processes have been followed. \u201cAs the Secretary of State made clear last year during his speech to the Royal College of GPs in October 2024, we are committed to implementing this direction in line with patients\u2019 explicit consent for their data to be used in research,\u201d a DHSC spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of doctors has warned the government that the move could erode patient trust. While the direction&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[2814,6511,5205,393,3976,105,34778,4348,6738,2343,10689,16,15,3595],"class_list":{"0":"post-582509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-data","9":"tag-data-protection","10":"tag-doctors","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-governance","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-health-systems","15":"tag-healthcare","16":"tag-patients","17":"tag-research","18":"tag-research-and-development","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115582045775422649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}