The best way to protect NHS patients’ data | Letter

A genuinely competitive market would prevent any single company’s decisions from putting the system at risk, says Prof Erika Denton

Your article on the TPG/Optum UK deal, over the patient record system used by most GP practices in England, highlights a specific issue that is symptomatic of a much bigger problem (Alarm at NHS patient records being put under control of US private equity firm, 27 July). I’ve spent years working across the NHS, both in clinical radiology and in national policy roles, and this deal follows a pattern. Systems holding patients’ most sensitive data keep ending up with a small number of large suppliers.

The real opportunity now is to build on the progress already under way, so that ownership of any single system carries less risk regardless of who holds it. NHS England’s own steps, from guidance on AI-enabled tools to the health bill’s proposed provisions on the single patient record, point in the right direction. What should follow on from that is straightforward: data hosted in the UK, a clinician signing off before anything changes in a patient’s record, and an audit trail that regulators and patients can actually check.