A new programme of collecting patient data has just been launched. Originally patients had until 23 June to opt out from a start on 1st July but the start has now been put off until 1st September with currently latest opt-out date as 25th August 2021. You can access the opt-out form below. In relation to this the NHS has a consultation on its new draft data strategy running until 23rd July. At the time of writing the programme had not received the endorsement of the British Medical Association (BMA) or the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Previously data was collected in support of programmes such as vaccinations and to measure GP performance in dealing with 30-odd conditions under the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) through which GP practices received incentive payments for high performance. The new system will be much more a case of cradle to grave care history, some aspects, like medications, limited to the last 10 years. The value of Britain's patient data has been estimated at 10 billion per year, but current charges are far below this and are believed to represent NHS costs in providing the data. We are all aware that the unified approach of our National Health Service offers enormous advantages, as illustrated currently with the Covid-19 vaccination policy. A particular advantage is that we have uniform data and the NHS number for all NHS patients. Data about the population is a wonderful resource for medical research, and health care planning. Naturally, this data resource is of interest to commercial companies developing medical products and services, and indeed, as long as products and services are developed in this way, it is advantageous for our data to be used to improve this process, subject to data use safeguards and possible commercial arrangements which benefit the nation. NHS DIgital guarantees that the data is never shared for the purposes of marketing or insurance. Nevertheless, the central collection of patient data under adequate safeguards is a difficult matter. We have seen the hacking of data from respected companies. We are wary of sensitive personal data being exploited by unscrupulous companies. Data related to patients' treatment in hospitals is regularly collected centrally by the IT unit of the NHS known as NHS digital. The data is pseudonymised and encrypted before transmission, and then made available to research users for specific, approved projects, both academic and commercial. NHS Digital only levies charges in respects of its costs. In 2014 the Government made an attempt to collect patient data from GP surgeries with the "care.data" programme. However, this failed to gain public confidence and had to be withdrawn. Now a new programme of collecting patient data has just been launched and patients have until 23 June to opt out. Most unfortunately, the Government seems to have chosen to proceed by stealth rather than by persuasion. On the day after the Queen's Speech, 12th May 2021, the NHS issued a Data Provision Notice to GPs, to enable a new platform - the General Practice Data for Planning and Research Service (GPDPR) - which replaces an existing system - the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) - and should be more reliable and collect more detail about patients.