The Privacy Rights of Professionals
Via Kable, we learn that “Health secretary Alan Johnson announced on 24 July 2005 that information about patients’ own and other GP practices will eventually be available through the NHS Choices website. Data will cover practice opening hours and the times GPs are available for appointments, results from the national patients survey, core indicators of patient experience from the Quality and Outcomes Framework, and what extended services the practice offers.”
Er, um, no problem about opening hours and services offered, but results from the national patents survey? Lot of trust you’re placing in the hands of an analyst… What’s the difference (and which is better?) between that and having patients use a star rating a la Amazon book reviews?
Think about possible effects on GP behaviour… squeaky wheels and grease, patient selection, practice selection…
July 27th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Are these meant to be bad effects? British doctors have long been notorious for arrogant, distant attitudes, and it can be very difficult to tell what you’re getting into when you sign up with a practice in a new area. Doesn’t everyone want to sign up with the best doctors? Isn’t that a natural, human instinct?
wg
July 31st, 2007 at 11:04 am
I think for the “directory” type information - opening hours, qualifications, address, any official complaints etc the official government-controlled Healthy Choices site is fine. But all soft patient-contributed data should go to an independent site with clear governance arrangements and transparency, and the patients’ interests clerly at heart. Happily this exists already: http://www.patientopinion.org.uk/