It is said that a GP surgery has been asked by the Home Office to reveal a patient's address in what health campaigners fear is an “escalation” of invasion into confidential records.
The request from the Home Office comes amid controversy at the willingness of NHS Digital to reveal patient information to help the Government track immigration offenders.
The Commons Health Committee has expressed it was “deeply concerned” that the sharing of non-clinical data could deter migrants from seeking healthcare. MPs have stated that this could be detrimental and prove more expensive to the NHS if an untreated condition becomes worse, and could also cause wife public health issues if their children went unvaccinated for diseases, such as measles.
Chairwoman of the committee, Dr Jackie Applebee said, “I said they should decline, on the basis that it's a breach of patient confidentiality. It really risks losing the trust of patients if this sort of data is divulged.”
Migrants are entitled to free emergency care at A&Es, as well as free healthcare from GPs. Doctors are only obligated to set aside their duty of confidentiality and reveal patient data with other authorities in rare cases, such as when a serious crime has occurred.
