Google might hold NHS patient records
Writing recently in the British Medical Journal, Julian Sheather, deputy head of ethics at the BMA, noted the sea change which is occurring in the way the NHS manages health information. While he recognised the benefits to patient outcomes that the free flow of information between doctor and patient can bring he also acknowledged the public's fear and unease about the uses to which Government might one day put the data.
Now the Times ratchets up the fear factor with a story which says that under a Conservative government responsibility for holding health records might pass to the private sector. The story questions whether Google can be trusted with people's medical histories and examines the close ties between the Conservatives and the world's most powerful search engine.
