As many in this country are calling for a ban on the sharing of physician prescribing data -- our regulatory cousins in the United Kingdom are moving aggressively in precisely the opposite direction.
According to a report in the Financial Times,
The government is considering making public the full details of 700m prescriptions issued by general practitioners each year.
Publication could provide valuable new statistics to help improve treatment, fight "postcode prescribing" and hold GPs more accountable.
The proposal is sensitive, however, following embarrassing losses of personal information by government agencies in recent months. Medical specialists warn that detailed prescription data could also threaten patient confidentiality and undermine existing research databases.
The aim was "to determine whether it would be possible to make practice-level prescribing data more accessible to the private sector", the government said in an answer to a recent parliamentary question.
Sue Sharpe, head of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, which represents pharmacists, said, "I have concerns about patient and prescriber confidentiality" if the data were released more widely. She also commented that it could also lead to "aggressive promotion of prescriptions" by drug companies.
Here's a link to the complete article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dea53df6-feba-11dc-9e04-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Same issues as here at home, but a completely antipodal policy design.
According to a report in the Financial Times,
The government is considering making public the full details of 700m prescriptions issued by general practitioners each year.
Publication could provide valuable new statistics to help improve treatment, fight "postcode prescribing" and hold GPs more accountable.
The proposal is sensitive, however, following embarrassing losses of personal information by government agencies in recent months. Medical specialists warn that detailed prescription data could also threaten patient confidentiality and undermine existing research databases.
The aim was "to determine whether it would be possible to make practice-level prescribing data more accessible to the private sector", the government said in an answer to a recent parliamentary question.
Sue Sharpe, head of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, which represents pharmacists, said, "I have concerns about patient and prescriber confidentiality" if the data were released more widely. She also commented that it could also lead to "aggressive promotion of prescriptions" by drug companies.
Here's a link to the complete article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dea53df6-feba-11dc-9e04-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Same issues as here at home, but a completely antipodal policy design.