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Pulse Weekly: A last-minute rethink on care.data

Must read articles:

After weeks of mounting concern over care.data, NHS England yesterday hit the emergency brake. With just days to go until records were due to be uploaded from GP surgeries, the Government’s flagship data-sharing initiative has been put on hold.

As Pulse’s editorial recently argued, there are real concerns over NHS England’s mandate for sharing records without explicit consent, and it is patients’ awareness of the scheme – or lack thereof – which appears to have been the deciding factor.

A BBC poll over the weekend found that two thirds of the public did not recall receiving a care.data information leaflet, and the apparent lack of understanding about the scheme prompted first the RCGP and then the BMA to raise objections – even though both organisations had until very recently been on board.

Read our in-depth analysis explaining exactly how the scheme will work here, plus a blog from senior reporter Jaimie Kaffash arguing that the narrative of the care.data fiasco feels strangely familiar. You can also find out the very latest on what’s happening to Dr Gordon Gancz – the Oxford GP whose decision to opt out all of his patients and subsequently speak out on the front page of the Daily Mail no doubt contributed to the last-minute rethink.

Quote Of The Week

 

 

‘I get so fed up. We’re there trying to sort out everybody’s problems and meanwhile the posh middle classes are complaining because they can’t get access to us’

RCGP chair Professor Clare Gerada on further requests for food bank referrals

 

 

 

Other key stories this week include the threat of penalties for GPs who don’t use Choose and Book, an MPIG-reliant practice facing a 25% funding drop and a survey finding that one in six GPs has been asked to refer a patient to a food bank in the past year.

New CPD modules on Pulse Learning include how not to miss inhaled foreign bodies and key questions on prescribing in older people, and don’t forget you can earn 14 CPD hours by attending Pulse Live. The two-day conference will take place in London on 29 and 30 April, but we’re pleased to announce that it will now also be held in Manchester on 12 and 13 June. Find out more here.

And finally, here’s a curious fact to impress your friends and colleagues. The insurance company gocompare.com has done an analysis of more than six million quotes to put together a league table of the professions most likely to make a car insurance claim. And guess who’s come out top…