UK workers take fewest sick days since records began

Britons were more likely to struggle into work last year with coughs and colds than at any time since records began almost a quarter of a century ago, according to official figures.

About 137m working days were lost from illness and injury in 2016, said the Office for National Statistics, equivalent to 4.3 days per worker, the lowest rate since 1993, when it was 7.2 days.

Minor illnesses such as coughs and colds accounted for almost a quarter of the days lost due to sickness in 2016, at 34m. The second most common reason for not turning up to work was musculoskeletal problems including back pain, neck and upper limb problems, which accounted for 22.4% of days lost to sickness.

Mental health issues including stress, depression, anxiety and more serious conditions such as manic depression and schizophrenia resulted in 15.8m days being lost or 11.5%.

The total number of work days lost to sickness and injury peaked in the late 1990s at 185m. Although the figure reached a low of 132m in 2013, before rising again in 2014 and 2015, this was down to a steep increase in the working population.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said the fall in the sickness rate showed that “it is a myth that UK workers are always throwing sickies”.

She said: “We are really a nation of mucus troopers, with people more likely to go to work when ill than stay at home when well.

“Sickness absence rates have fallen steadily over the past decade, and let’s not forget that working people put in billions of pounds’ worth of unpaid overtime each year.”

The ONS said the groups with the highest rates of sickness absence were women, older workers, those with long-term health conditions, smokers, public health sector workers and those working in the largest organisations.

“The groups that have seen the greatest reduction in sickness absence rates over the past two decades are workers with long-term health conditions, workers aged 50 to 64, and those in the public sector,” it said.

Wales and Scotland suffered the highest rates of sickness absence in the UK, at 2.6% and 2.5% respectively, while the lowest rate was found in London at 1.4%.

Employees lost 2.1% of the year to sickness compared with 1.4% for the self-employed and the public sector lost 2.9% compared with 1.7% for workers in private firms last year.

ONS statistician Brendan Freeman said: “Since 2003, there has been a fairly steady decline in the number of working days lost to sickness, especially during the economic downturn.

“In recent years, there has been a small rise in the number of days lost, but due to an increasing number of people entering the workforce, the rate per worker and overall sickness absence rate have stayed largely flat.”

UK workers take fewest sick days since records began

Teething problems: why dental records are a poor way of checking age for migrants

The media furore over dental checks to establish the ages of child migrants arriving from Calais has raised the question of how we define – and prove – adulthood. Dentists have said the checks would likely be inaccurate, not to mention unethical. Brain imaging wouldn’t be much use either, as recent research has shown the brain continues developing right up until the mid-20s and beyond.

Growth of grey matter is very rapid from around the age of 12, but peaks a few years later. What follows in later adolescence is a pruning and sculpting of the many connections that have sprouted during puberty. It could be argued that experiences in this period are as important as earlier ones, and in some ways more significant, as they affect the brain’s frontal lobe which deals with the development of character and morality.

Insurance companies seem to have realised this, as car insurance premiums change depending on your age right into your 20s. And since 2013, child psychologists have worked with under 25s, not just under 18s. It’s just a shame that this is not currently reflected by our asylum policy.

Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London

Teething problems: why dental records are a poor way of checking age for migrants

Inquest blasts immigration centre"s "shambolic" records in US man"s death

Harmondsworth immigration detention centre. Personnel there testified that they obtained restricted mental wellness awareness training. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Pictures

An inquest into the death of an American tourist who was detained on arrival at Heathrow has criticised an immigration centre’s medical data technique for currently being “shambolic”.

Returning a verdict of death by natural leads to compounded by neglect, the jury at West London coroner’s court thorough a catalogue of errors in Brian Dalrymple’s care.

The 35-12 months-old US citizen flew into the Uk in June 2011. He was stopped by Uk Border Agency personnel due to the fact his behaviour appeared uncommon. Dalrymple had schizophrenia and dangerously higher blood pressure.

He was carrying only a little cardboard box containing a coat, a minimize-throat razor and $ two,000 in cash. Immigration officers denied him leave to enter the nation and eliminated him to Harmondsworth elimination centre. Just before he could be returned to the US, he claimed asylum.

The jury’s narrative verdict stated: “The United kingdom Border Company contacted the House Workplace at Harmondsworth to request a psychiatric assessment and repeated the request on a quantity of occasions. No action was taken. The US Embassy were not notified of Mr Dalrymple’s detention.”

It continued: “Throughout Mr Dalrymple’s detention at Harmondsworth, healthcare record-maintaining was shambolic.”

Dalrymple was detained for 6 weeks. A handful of days ahead of he died he was transferred to another detention centre, Colnbrook, run by the personal operator Serco, but with out his healthcare information.

Workers at Colnbrook identified him as currently being mentally sick but by the time they had arranged a psychiatrist, Dalrymple was dead. His higher blood strain had brought on an aortic rupture.

The inquest had earlier heard that the physician at Harmondsworth had not had any induction training and did not know of the duty health-related practitioners have to inform the House Workplace of detainees with health-related motives for currently being released. There were no computerised health-related data all the detention centre’s records have been handwritten.

Detention centre staff from Harmondsworth testified that they received limited psychological overall health awareness training. 1 mentioned she felt underneath-equipped to deal with the vulnerable people she had to seem following. Two officers explained they had been not concerned about folks in Harmondsworth “muttering to themselves” simply because a great deal of individuals did that.

Dalrymple was taken to Hillingdon hospital nearby but then discharged himself against medical guidance. No clinician saw him following his discharge. His mother was represented at the inquest by Jocelyn Cockburn, of the law firm Hodge Jones &amp Allen, who said: “This situation shines a light on the perilous state of immigration custody in the Uk. It is anything that the British government can no longer disregard.

“There is a worrying trend emerging in these varieties of circumstances, specifically with the enhanced privatisation of what have always typically been public functions, that the standard care and healthcare remedy of detainees gets to be fragmented and specified essential actions are ignored, typically major to devastating consequences and it has to stop now before much more lives are lost.”

Deborah Coles, co-director of the organisation Inquest, which supports family members in coroner’s courts, stated: “This is a shocking death of a mentally and physically sick man who died in his cell as a outcome of corporate neglect and indifference. The catalogue of failings are not special to this situation but expose the plight of people held in immigration detention and the systemic neglect of detainees’ mental and bodily ill well being, as evidenced by the high numbers of deaths, suicide attempts and self-harm.”

A jury at the inquest into the death of Muhammad Shukat, who died at Colnbrook a month earlier, also concluded that neglect contributed to his death.

Responding to the verdict, Lorraine Dalrymple, Brian’s mom, mentioned: “The Uk Border Agency took away my son’s freedom that day and by putting him in a detention centre therefore accepting responsibility for his care. It would be a care so fragmented and disorganised that his psychological problem would deteriorate to the stage of him losing his dignity … and lastly due to lack of appropriate healthcare ultimately led to his death.

“I have accepted my accountability concerning my son’s death. I ignored my mother’s intuition and listened to other folks regarding England not being a third planet nation and Brian being protected … This was a mistake I will have to live with for the rest of my life … If I had acknowledged what I know now of what was happening, I’d have contacted absolutely everyone achievable, carried out every little thing attainable to support my son. My son did come house, but in a box.”

Inquest blasts immigration centre"s "shambolic" records in US man"s death

Runner, 91, breaks two marathon records

A 91-year-previous female has set time and age records at the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego marathon on Sunday.

Harriette Thompson became the oldest girl to compete in the race and it was her 15th time working it.

With a time of 7 hrs, seven minutes and 42 seconds, Ms Thompson also broke the US record for the fastest marathon run in the 90-94 age group.

Ms Thompson is a cancer survivor and just lately underwent nine radiation treatments for cancer in her legs.

She says the ideal portion of every single race is going in excess of the finish line.

Runner, 91, breaks two marathon records

Electronic Overall health Records - High-priced, Disruptive And Right here To Stay

Though workers shortages and rising require for care are time consuming for providers and add responsibilities, the genuine culprit of lost operate time, particularly for Emergency Room physicians, is electronic health data (EHR). The require to make positive each and every interaction is digitally recorded for a patient’s personalized archive is a necessity of strengthening care and long term regulation, nonetheless it is also disruptive to overall health providers and techniques spanning the country. Jonathan Handler, MD, FACEP, Chief Healthcare Data Officer at M*Modal says that present day EHRs are frequently overly targeted on data entry and generally offer poorly designed data displays with rudimentary functions for browsing and organizing patient data. The data entry steals doctor time away from direct patient care, and that is what’s driving doctor dissatisfaction.” EHRs are also exceptionally expensive, occasionally costing millions in technological innovation, training and misplaced time, as effectively as presently remaining incomplete. Despite claims from the Secretary of Wellness and Human Providers that wonderful progress has been manufactured, other federal agencies assert that there is a prolonged way to go and measurements for EHR achievement are extremely hard. However, with  and federal needs to comply, EHRs are not going anywhere.

Government Push For EHR

Even the Government Accountability Workplace (GAO) has taken a swipe at the incentive program for EHRs claiming it lacks an capacity to demonstrate purpose achievement for improving care. GAO specifically stated that there wants to be far better approach for establishing reliability in clinical quality measures, which will be essential in the 2nd stage of Meaningful Use (MU), specifically since 

Even so, according to the Secretary of Overall health and Human Solutions Kathleen Sebelius, “We have reached a tipping level in adoption of electronic health records. Much more than half of eligible professionals and 80% of eligible hospitals have adopted these programs, which are crucial to modernizing our wellness care system.” While these numbers are fantastic achievements in contrast to past reports of compliance, adopting a new engineering method and making use of it effectively are extremely various.

Despite the government attempting to incentivize usage of EHRs in all care settings, the burden on physicians and health system staff is posing challenges beyond expectations. One particular of the beneath-told stories from the digitizing of patient information is the burden computerized documentation areas on medical doctors. They are getting tasked with better information entry, and much less with analysis and care. This goes past anecdotes – a recent report from Rand, in partnership with the AMA, factors to dissatisfaction with the current model and requirements as a significant location of concern for doctors.

Hospital techniques and administrators are also concerned that unintended consequences of developing pains connected with EHR compliance could avert them from getting chosen by well being ideas, managed care strategies and shared-risk organizations. Given that these entities will be looking for robust track information of EHR value-efficient usage and potential ICD-ten utilization, numerous suppliers on the finding out curve could be left behind.

A Bumpy Path For Companies

The worldwide EHR market is expected to attain $ 22.3 billion by the end of 2015, with the North American market alone accounting for $ ten.one million, or 47%. With that variety of anticipated – and regulated – growth, there is a important need to make the transition much less taxing on the doctor so they can see and get benefit of the benefits, which consist of much better population and patient-degree knowing of ailment and care utilization.

US health care groups’ adoption of EHR (2005) (Photograph credit score: Wikipedia)

A Rand report also mentioned that well being care providers that supplement quick-term solutions like transcription experts or movement managers were useful and value saving at the time. This lends hope that the up coming generation of engineering offerings this kind of as speech technology, Google Google Glass, and innovations nevertheless uncovered could make inputs simpler and the target on information output and utilization much more appealing.

Even so, Judy Murphy, RN and deputy national coordinator for packages and policy at the Workplace of the National Coordinator (ONC) tells AHIMA that  One of the things we’re undertaking with acquiring EHRs set up is that we’re setting up the capabilities and electronically exchanging the data so we can generate a patient-centric record.”

However, that is simpler said that carried out. Just like dropped calls, shifts to cell phones, outgrowing contracts, geographic barriers and interoperability issues plagued telephone service, initial adopter difficulties will lead to underperforming programs. Use of EHRs is increasing swiftly, but tweaks will be essential for a along time.

Paving The Way Via Innovation

 This leaves suppliers two possibilities – continue the path of anguish or try out to at least do anything about it so that physicians truly use the EHR methods in which they have invested.

While EHR’s are nevertheless operating in direction of interoperability, clinical imaging has charged forward with vendor neutral archive (VNA) technological innovation. VNA systems archive clinical photos in a vendor neutral format, offer imaging workflow, and accessibility to all clinical pictures throughout the enterprise from the EHR. Jon Hamdorf, Director of Worldwide VNA Answers for Perceptive Computer software believes, “VNA technology delivers on the guarantee of information ownership which is the foundation of interoperability. Patient data requirements to grow to be a lot more available in a lot more dynamic techniques to support new versions of care.”

According to Dr. Handler the solution is basic, “Computers need to have to do function for physicians rather than producing physicians do work for the computer. Technologies must make it faster and easier for the treating doctor to see relevant info, to document a useful patient story, and to make the very best care decisions”. He believes this can be achieved by means of various means such as single indicator-on, biometrics, speech recognition, normal language comprehending, personal computer-assisted physician documentation, advanced information visualizations, predictive analytics, and other modern technologies. “By supplementing EHRs with these modern technologies, we can enhance physician adoption and ease the burden of EHR entry,” contends Dr. Handler.

Electronic Overall health Records - High-priced, Disruptive And Right here To Stay

Public lacks believe in more than health-related records because also many lies in previous

He explained the true difficulty for several critics of the scheme was “we really do not believe in the government.”

Mr Lilley, who runs a internet site for healthcare managers, explained: “They lied to us about the Well being and Social Care Act. They could be lying to us about the use of our information. It’s been a balls up. It’s a balls up of the politicians’ creating. We can find out. There is considerably to criticise, but criticise the politicians – and not the NHS.”

He told the Wellness and Care Innovation Expo that data had “revolutionised” attitudes in direction of healthcare, and could vastly boost the top quality of care.

Tim Kelsey, national director for patients and data at NHS England, which is in charge of the scheme, stated efforts to describe the programme to the public so far were “not excellent enough”.

He informed delegates: “For a safe NHS we need to have a information-driven wellness service. My message is we have to make this perform. We are going to make this work. We are going to promise that people’s data is safe. we are going to have a proper public conversation.”

A poll of 2,000 grownups by the Royal School of Standard Practitioners located two thirds of folks do not truly feel the public was properly informed about the programs and their appropriate to opt out.

Previously, Wellness Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that he was going to introduce new legislation to guarantee that insurance coverage firms could not buy data through the scheme.

Mr Hunt wished to give “rock-solid” assurance to sufferers that confidential data could not be offered for commercial insurance coverage functions, the Division of Wellness mentioned.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed that hospital data of 47 million sufferers have been offered to a society of actuaries for insurance purposes. Yesterday it emerged that similar information had been employed to advise companies on how to target audiences by way of social media.

Public lacks believe in more than health-related records because also many lies in previous

Company linked to drug makers sought pact on access to patient records database

By extracting patient data, drug makers will be ready to know which medicines a medical doctor is prescribing and how that compares with other individuals locally. Photograph: Alamy

A organization working to access NHS prescription data on behalf of pharmaceutical firms attempted to signal a gentlemen’s agreement last yr for accessibility to the new central database of medical information on every patient in England, the Guardian has discovered.

The firm, i4Health, lobbied the new Overall health and Social Care Info Centre (HSCIC) in July 2013 for a memorandum of understanding to “ensure that requests [for patient information] from daily life sciences acquire prompt focus”, an examination of the stakeholder forums of HSCIC exhibits.

Senior NHS officials are due to seem at the parliamentary wellness pick committee on Tuesday soon after ideas to extract patient data from GP files have been place on hold final week.

A single of the important concerns is likely to be how patient privacy will be protected provided that, under the scheme, data from GP records – including children’s mental wellness diagnoses, family histories and medicines prescribed, as properly as smoking and drinking habits – would be offered to public and private analysis organisations, industrial organizations, universities and “data intermediaries”.

On Monday it emerged that an insurance society, Staple Inn Actuarial Society, mentioned it was capable to entry the hospital information of 47 million sufferers in excess of 13 many years to help it decide premiums for clients.

According to the Competitors Commission, i4Health will “offer entry to NHS prescription information”. 1 of the aims of the new company is to allow drug firms to get collectively to access health care details simpler than if they applied individually. i4Health has currently created substantial-profile appointments, hiring the HSCIC’s former chair Candy Morris as a non-executive director.

The pharmaceutical industry has championed the proposed “care.information” scheme, claiming that health-related surveillance is key to creating certain firms are obtaining the appropriate drug to the proper sufferers. Critics say the database’s true worth is as an intrusive advertising instrument.

By extracting patient data, drug makers will be in a position to know which medicines a doctor is prescribing and how that compares with other folks locally. They will also be ready to discern whether or not individuals are picking up their prescriptions and, crucially, will be ready to collect details of patients’ health-related circumstances and lab exams.

Organizations argue that the recent database utilized for investigating patient conditions, identified as the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, is incomplete and the available pharmacy prescription data does not reveal patient situations as GP records would – only the medicines they take.

Professionals warned that the public would be uncomfortable with the notion of patient information becoming utilised to sell medication. Ian Herbert, of the British Laptop Society, and a member of the committee that advises the HSCIC on customer requests, informed the Guardian: “Patient surveys demonstrate that the public get most upset when their records are utilized by business outfits for promoting or advertising merchandise. Numerous clinicians will not be satisfied about this as well.”

Below the care.information scheme, delicate medical records containing NHS numbers, date of birth, postcode, ethnicity and gender will be extracted from each and every GP surgery in England, unless sufferers opt out. Patient information will be scrubbed of some of the most obvious private identifiers – a approach recognized as pseudonymisation – but not adequate to make the info fully anonymous prior to it is offered to third parties.

“You have to keep the data quite lean if you are going to hold the threat of identification at an insignificant degree,” Herbert stated. “Once you commence accessing it in excess of time and comparing it with other datasets it swiftly gets to be quite a wealthy source of info. Then you can identify patients. That’s the danger with massive industries like pharma which have a good deal of data.”

Drugs firms deny there is a chance of patients’ personal medical files getting rifled by means of. Lawrence Berry, i4Health’s chief executive, said: “Businesses this kind of as ours use anonymised data, not identifiable confidential data, to appear for exactly where enhancements can be created to increase treatments and outcomes for individuals.”

Berry previously founded a healthcare details company, Datapharm, which is funded by 200 pharmaceutical companies. He mentioned i4Health would be a non-profit firm whose members would include drug firms.

The HSCIC confirmed that i4Health had been searching to signal a memorandum of knowing with it last 12 months to reduce delays in acquiring hold of patient data, but stated the business would not now be asking for unique therapy and would make requests like any other applicant.

Nonetheless, campaigners claim that i4Health seems to be like a front for the medication business. Phil Booth, of the patient privacy campaign group medConfidential, said: “Initial NHS England officials flat out deny they are promoting our data, even even though income alterations hands. Then they deny they promote information to insurers, but they’ve just been caught doing that.

“Now we uncover pharmaceutical organizations are queuing up behind so-called not-for-revenue front firms to spy on what capsules we consider to get far better. The complete care.information scheme is starting to search like absolutely nothing far more than a giant healthcare information-laundering machine.”

Company linked to drug makers sought pact on access to patient records database

Hospital records of 47 million NHS individuals obtained by insurance coverage society

Much less than a week soon after the NHS was forced to postpone its enormous GP and hospital record-sharing strategy, it has emerged that a major insurance physique bought far more than a decade’s well worth of hospital information covering 47 million patients which, it was claimed, is to be employed to assist insurers refine their premiums.

The Staple Inn Actuarial Society mentioned that information covering all hospital in-patient stays between 1997 and 2010 was utilized to track patients’ health-related histories, recognized by date of birth and postcode, in accordance to the Daily Telegraph.

The information have been then reportedly combined with details from credit ratings agencies and employed to advise insurance coverage firms, resulting in enhanced premiums for most consumers beneath the age of 50.

The newly formed Health &amp Social Care Info Centre (HSCIC), which collects nationwide wellness and social care information, explained that the information referred to by the Staple Inn Actuarial Society had been supplied by a predecessor body, the NHS Info Centre.

It insisted that the records had been not used to analyse individual insurance coverage premiums but to analyse common variances in crucial illness.

“The newly formed HSCIC can now only supply HES [hospital episode statistics] information to organisations that are hunting to increase the way they are run for the benefit of their sufferers,” it stated in a statement. “This information is totally protected and does not recognize men and women.” The news comes at a time of heightened sensitivity about patient record confidentiality after the postponement of the NHS’s massive care.information scheme. The task, which would be the 1st time that the complete healthcare background of the nation had been digitised and stored in a single area, has been place on hold for 6 months.

Advocates say that sharing data will make medical advances less difficult and in the long run save lives because it will allow researchers to investigate drug side results or the overall performance of hospital surgical units by monitoring the effect on sufferers.

Nevertheless, privacy professionals warn there will be no way for the public to function out who has their health care information or to what use their information will be put.

Hospital records of 47 million NHS individuals obtained by insurance coverage society

Hospital records of all NHS sufferers sold to insurers

It boasts that “uniquely” they have been capable to combine these particulars with information from credit ratings companies, this kind of as Experian, which record the lifestyle routines of milllions of customers.

The calculations were used to advise firms how to refine their premiums, resulting in enhanced premiums for most consumers below the age of 50, in accordance to the report dated last March.

The 274-web page report describes the NHS Hospital Episode Statistics as a “valuable data supply in establishing pricing assumptions for ‘critical illness’ cover.”

It says that by combining hospital information with socio-financial profiles, specialists have been in a position to much better determine the likelihood of circumstances, with “amazingly” clear forecasts achievable for specific ailments, in distinct lung cancer.

Phil Booth, from privacy campaign group medConfidential, said: “The language in the document is extraordinary this is not about patients, this is about exploiting a industry. Of program any commercial organisation will target on producing a revenue – the question is why is the NHS prepared to hand this data above?”

He extra: “We have been categorically told that it would be illegal for GP data to be handed in excess of to insurers, nevertheless already all this hospital data has been extracted. It blows out of the water the notion that patients’ privacy is currently being protected.”

Final week Tim Kelsey, director for sufferers and data at NHS England, stated it will be “a criminal offence” for any info entered into the new giant database, which will combine GP and hospital records, to be sold for insurance purposes. Even so, a database which only contains hospital information stays a separate entity, with its personal principles allowing better accessibility to third events.

There has been a increasing backlash towards the scheme with loved ones medical doctors and privacy campaigners raising fears that information could be misused.

Those behind the £50 million data-sharing plan say it will increase healthcare and aid health care analysis.

Last week NHS officials announced a 6-month delay to the plans, to tackle issues and improve publicity. Speaking soon after the delay was announced, Mr Kelsey said the database necessary to go ahead simply because it was “vital” to strengthening Britain’s cancer survival costs.

Tomorrow, the Commons wellness choose committee is due to question NHS officials top the scheme and to hear worries from privacy campaigners.

In the report based mostly on hospital information, actuaries employed the details as the basis for detailed calculations about the incidence of typical wellness situations.

It describes a falling industry in ‘critical illness’ insurance coverage cover, with product sales dropping by nearly half in a decade, and suggests estimates of prevalence for major situations including Alzheimer’s disease are probably to be drastically underestimated, since they are based on the hospital figures, when most care is supplied outside hospitals.

Hospital records of all NHS sufferers sold to insurers

NHS medical records database: hazards vs rewards

• The high quality of the data being degraded by the numbers of men and women who quit sharing personal details with their medical doctor

Benefits

• Individuals acquiring much better data about the risks positive aspects and side-results of medicines and treatment options

• Enhanced data on infection rates, and clinical outcomes from surgical procedure

• Detection of trends in public health – that means it could detect outbreaks of infections like measles much more rapidly, or expose links among drug treatments and unwell-results, prevents scandals such as the birth defects connected with thalidomide

• Greater access from patients to their own data

• Possibilities for app developers and internet site designers to help a vibrant marketplace location in overall health information

Source: Privacy Impact Evaluation: care.information, by NHS England

NHS medical records database: hazards vs rewards

NHS in England delays sharing of medical records

NHS England has delayed the launch of care.data, and the sharing of patient health care records. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

NHS England is to delay the introduction of a method to share healthcare information after healthcare and patients’ groups called for far more time to increase awareness of how people can opt out and have self confidence in the scheme.

Beneath the original timetable, individuals had right up until the commence of April to opt out of the information-sharing technique, which the NHS says will improve study into the final result of treatments and permit drug and insurance firms to get “pseudonymised” health care data. Last month, all 26m households in England had been sent leaflets about the scheme, setting out the achievable rewards and explaining how to make a decision regardless of whether to consider element.

In a statement, NHS England explained the collection of data from GPs’ surgeries would start in the autumn – it did not give a more exact date – to permit “much more time to create understanding of the benefits of using the information, what safeguards are in spot, and how folks can opt out if they select to”.

In the course of this time NHS England will work with groups including the British Health-related Association (BMA), the Royal School of Standard Practitioners (RCGP) and the customer body Healthwatch to advertise awareness, as effectively as hunting to new means of constructing self-confidence in the scheme, formally identified as care.data.

In the meanwhile, NHS England would work with a modest variety of GP practices on a voluntary basis to check the quality of the information collected, the statement added.

Tim Kelsey, nationwide director for patients at NHS England, said it needed to listen to patients’ views. He explained: “We have been advised extremely plainly that sufferers need a lot more time to find out about the rewards of sharing info and their right to object to their info getting shared. That is why we are extending the public awareness campaign by an further 6 months.”

Anna Bradley, chair of Healthwatch England, explained: “This is a truly constructive move by NHS England. They have proven a willingness to pay attention to what the public have to say about the way their well being and care providers are run.

“Crucially they have agreed to Healthwatch England’s request to see the roll-out of care.data delayed to permit much more time to guarantee the public are fully informed. Above the coming months the Healthwatch network will carry on to perform a essential role listening to the issues of regional communities, assisting to inform them about what’s happening and functioning with NHS England to increase their communications with the public so every of us can make an informed determination.”

Professor Nigel Mathers, from the RCGP, stated: “We would like to thank NHS England for listening to the considerations of RCGP members and for acting so swiftly to announce this pause. The further time will supply it with the likelihood to redouble its efforts to inform every patient of their proper to opt out, each and every GP of how the programme will function, and the nation of what robust safeguards will be in location to defend the safety of people’s data.”

The RCGP has sent a letter to NHS England arguing that the delay need to be used to clarify concerns this kind of as what data can be disclosed and who will decide this, and for a national campaign that highlights the choice to opt out.

Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA’s general practitioner’s committee, stated: “With just weeks to go until the uploading of patient data was scheduled to get started, it was clear from GPs on the ground that patients remain inadequately informed about the implications of care.data.

“Although the BMA is supportive of using anonymised data to strategy and increase the top quality of NHS care for individuals, this should only be completed with the support and consent of the public, and it is only proper that they fully realize what the proposals mean to them and what their rights are if they do not want their data to be extracted.”

The scheme’s rollout has been beset by criticisms about the clarity of the information provided to the public. Earlier this month, the data commissioner’s workplace criticised the campaign for failing to adequately describe what data was concerned and how sufferers could avoid their medical records being shared. At the time, Kelsey agreed with some of the critics, saying: “Maybe we haven’t been clear sufficient about the opt-out.”

NHS in England delays sharing of medical records

A single in four hospitals records false waiting times

The report highlights a series of recent cases in which hundreds of sufferers have been forced to wait months for therapy, following information was allegedly fiddled in buy to disguise long waits, or since of blunders which meant situations have been wrongly recorded or even forgotten about.

It suggests this kind of practices might be widespread across the health support – which means that figures which are regularly published on hospital overall performance may bear no relation to the actuality for thousands of patients.

Auditors examined waiting instances for 650 orthopaedic patients treated at seven hospitals in England.

They found that in just 43 per cent of situations, data was correctly recorded. Mistakes have been located in 26 per cent of instances and on regular, individuals waited a total 3 weeks longer than information identified. In a more 31 per cent of situations, records were incomplete, producing it extremely hard for auditors to judge whether or not information had been manipulated or entered in error.

At Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS believe in, 55 per cent of situations critiques contained errors – that means the clock had been started out at the wrong time, or “paused” when it must not have been.

Nearly 40 per cent of the situations examined at Oxford University Hospitals trust and 29 per cent of cases at Bolton NHS Basis trust involved similarly incorrect data.

Even at the ideal of the 7 hospitals examined in the spotchecks a single in twelve information did not reflect the correct waiting time of the patient, the audit identified.

Last evening, Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Sufferers Association said: “It’s scandalous that hospitals have been in a position to get away with this.

“NHS trusts have been ready to manipulate the figures to present a picture which not only misleads the public, but signifies that we have no idea how numerous patients have been forced to wait far too prolonged, growing the dangers to their overall health.”

Charlotte Leslie, a Conservative member of the Commons wellness pick committee, mentioned: “This reflects appalling behaviour by NHS managers and it actually matches the perception that the public previously have that as well many managers care far more about hitting targets than they do about patient safety.”

She explained that cases in which information was manipulated were “absolutely unforgiveable” but that the NHS culture needed to shift away from targets, to put quality of care over almost everything else.

The NAO report highlights a series of latest situations in which thousands of individuals have been forced to endure prolonged waits because of mistakes and manipulation of information.

Police are currently investigating allegations that cancer waiting instances have been deliberately falsified at Colchester Hospital University NHS Basis Trust, where workers said they were “bullied or pressured” into altering the data.

A Care Top quality Commission (CQC) report into Colchester found that, in 22 circumstances, the therapy dates recorded on the technique had been altered and an investigation is examining thousands far more circumstances.

North West London Hospitals NHS Believe in failed to record properly the waiting times of two,700 individuals booked for inpatient treatment, such as 12 who ended up waiting much more than a year for remedy, the NAO report stated. The trust said its workers had not deliberately misrecorded data, but an internal report by the believe in found “a culture in which some workers felt under stress to stop patients’ clocks prematurely”.

More than half of its waiting lists for planned inpatient remedy were misrecorded.

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Believe in failed to monitor far more than 2,000 sufferers on the waiting record, leaving more than 600 individuals to wait between 18 weeks and a year for remedy, ahead of the delays have been uncovered in November.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, mentioned: “We have identified substantial errors and inconsistencies in how trusts record waiting time, masking a good deal of variation in between trusts in real waiting times.”

He stated trusts’ waiting record figures needed to be independently scrutinised, and warned that the NHS current techniques would “not detect errors or misreporting of the variety identified in this report”.

A spokeswoman for the Well being Secretary said: “Overall waiting times continue to be reduced and stable, with the amount of patients waiting longer than 18, 26 and 52 weeks reduce than at any time underneath the last Government.”

“It’s vital that reporting is usually exact, and we will work with the NHS to make certain hospital employees get the help they require to get this proper.”

A single in four hospitals records false waiting times