Patient information advisory group

Patient information advisory group

In December, Health Minister Hazel Blears announced the membership of the newly appointed Patient Information Advisory Group. The group, representing patient groups, healthcare professionals and regulatory bodies, will make sure that patients' rights are maintained, when the NHS and other health-related organisations use medical information about patients. It will consider applications made by organisations such as the NHS, the Public Health Laboratory Service and the Health and Safety Executive, under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act. The Act allows information about patients to be used without their consent, if it supports essential NHS activity. The recommendations of the Advisory Group will be published, debated in Parliament, and many proposals will also be subject to public consultation.

Ms Blears said:

The Group will play a crucial role in ensuring that patient-centred consent practice continues, by informing patients about how their confidential information is used when it has not been practicable to obtain their consent. Those organisations which obtain support under Section 60 to use information about patients without their consent will in the future be expected to demonstrate that they are developing mechanisms either to obtain the informed consent of the patients involved or to develop ways of anonymising data.

Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 provides the Secretary of State for Health with a power to ensure that patient-identifiable information needed to support essential NHS activity can be used without the consent of patients. The power can only be used to support medical purposes that are in the interests of patients or the wider public, where consent is not a practicable alternative and where anonymised information will not suffice.