Daily Mail reports a UK insurer has claimed “it was able to access records of 47 million patients over 13 years to help it decide premiums for customers.” The news follows announcements last week that NHS data-sharing plans were placed on hold in the midst of privacy concerns. “The Staple Inn Actuarial Society said in a report that it used NHS data covering all hospital in-patient stays between 1997 and 2010 to track the medical histories of patients, identified by date of birth and postcode,” the report states. One privacy advocate said, “We have been categorically told that it would be illegal for GP data to be handed over to insurers, yet already all this hospital data has been extracted. It blows out of the water the idea that patients’ privacy is being protected.”
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