Health chiefs plan to share patient data for every person in England in a bid to improve services.
Leaflets explaining how the NHS uses patient information have been landing on the doormats of England’s 26.5 million households.
The NHS says it wants to ensure the quality and safety of services is consistent across the country.
It says by linking GP and hospital data, analysts can highlight diseases and conditions that may require more NHS investment.
Managers have vowed that all personal information will be kept private and data used anonymously.
Dr Geraint Lewis, chief data officer at NHS England, said: “The NHS has been collecting information like this from hospitals for decades but until now we’ve been missing information about the quality of care provided outside hospital.
“This initiative is about upgrading our information systems to get a more complete picture of the quality of care being delivered across all parts of the NHS and social care.”
Dr Imran Rafi, chairman of the Clinical Innovation and Research Centre at the Royal College of General Practitioners said: “It is important that patients understand how the NHS uses and shares their information, and that they feel they have been given a proper choice to participate.”
Patients have the right to object to their data being used for purposes other than their direct care and can ask their GP to restrict it. Along with the leaflet an information line has been set up on 0300 456 3531.
