Many people are pleased about NHS England’s decision to ditch the care.data scheme to share patients’ confidential medical GP records across the whole range of NHS and social care organisations, because its patient consent and opt-out model was inadequate.

But although the headlines said one thing, the small print said another: it turns out that Life Sciences Minister George Freeman has announced that although the scheme will now be scrapped, work on setting up a system for shared confidential patient data will now be taken forward by the National Information Board.

It sounds like a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. Continue reading →