Kate Hoey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2014-07-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to engage with the public about (a) care.data and (b) ways of opting-out of care.data before data is collected.

Dr Daniel Poulter

NHS England is currently listening to the views of patients, the general public, general practitioners (GPs) and stakeholders on how best to further build trust and confidence in the care.data programme. Local stakeholders, including GPs, patients, the general public and health and care representatives, are taking part in debates and workshops to air their views.

There will be a phased approach to implementation. NHS England intends to work with a number of GP practices, ‘pathfinders’, in the autumn to test, evaluate and refine all aspects of the data collection process ahead of national roll-out. This will include consideration of ways of objecting “opting out” to being included in the care.data programme.

A care.data advisory group has been established to support the programme and that group will also be involved in shaping the pathfinder stage. Ciaran Devane, Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Support and a non-executive director of NHS England, has agreed to chair the group.