BBC and others report NHS data leak inaccurately. Stick with social media for real news
The piece quoted below, by Evolve Politics, says it all. The mass media like the BBC and the Graun simply aren’t reporting the news any more. For accuracy, you need to visit social media sites like Evolve and, of course Vox Political.
This Site ran its first piece on the subject yesterday, under the headline Health of thousands threatened because privatised NHS contractor misplaced documents – fair, accurate and, of course, laying blame where it belongs, with the privatisation of services.
The NHS didn’t misplace half a million documents – a private company partly owned by French firm Sopia Steria did.
The NHS didn’t cover up a data leak – Conservative government Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt did.
If the BBC and the Graun can’t report the news properly, then you have two choices – complain until they change their ways, or boycott them. Readers are already abandoning the Graun en masse.
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this story is that NHS services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were also affected, even though they should not be using privatised services.
Explanation, please?
The BBC opens with “NHS misplaced half a million documents,” The Guardian went with “NHS accused of covering up data leak.” Were you to read the mainstream media this morning then you might be forgiven for thinking our National Health Service was putting patients at risk. In reality, the fault lies with a private company. However, “private company fails the NHS” isn’t a snappy headline.
Between 2011 and 2016, 500,000 documents containing medical information were mistakenly filed for storage instead of being forwarded to GPs. This included important items like test results for cases as personal as cancer biopsies. Investigations are now under way into 2500 of the highest risk cases. The cost of these investigations has already reached £2.2 million as medical experts are brought in to individually assess cases.
A further investigation will also take place into whether the loss of documents played a role in the death of patients. A 50 strong team of administrators have also been brought in to resolve the mess left by the private company.
The company, NHS Shared Business Services, is partly owned by the Department of Health and partly by French company Sopia Steria. The government’s aim was to use a private company to increase efficiency within the NHS. Their poor record largely affects NHS England. Only 41 pieces of missing correspondence were from NHS Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. NHS England has the highest levels of private involvement.
Source: A private contractor lost patient data, but the BBC blamed the NHS | EvolvePolitics.com
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
There shouldn’t be any need to physically send such medical data anywhere in the 21st Century. Documents should be scanned as soon as they are created with the originals then stored securely. Such documents can then be attached to emails as encrypted PDFs and sent to the recipient via the email system. No huge amount of IT needed as the email infrastructure already exists, we all use it.
The BBC seems to want to aid the government in its attempts to show the NHS should be privatised, they still refer to scandal hit mid staffs, the complaints most of which were 9 years ago, and the alleged deaths disproved by Francis, but they still claim they happened, after all it would mean apologising to the 50,000 people who marched to save the services at Stafford , but that never got reported by the oh so wonderful BBC news.
I expect the offending private company will escape a massive fine for their total disregard for the privacy of the patients records. Massive fines are metered out rightly on private companies that do not respect the data protection of their staff and customers but doubtless nothing will happen in this case of total incompetence and neglet. Yup bring on more privatisation this is what the people of the UK look forward to from these cretins and morons who think they know the answers to a better NHS….read greed and corruption.