The medical records in the UK seem to be constantly moving around.
One day its the government planning on passing the data to private companies, another its the police getting access to medical records for anti-terrorism purposes.
We also know that these medical records are often misused as well.
But now figures have been released that show over 300 million records have been transfered from the government to academic organizations (as there are only 60 million people in the UK, the figure must assume multiple records per person, and include individual visits to doctors and hospitals). These records are identifiable.
The NHS routinely lose data as it is, with four out of five NHS trusts having lost patient data, but the probability of data loss and misuse has now radically increased. It should be remembered that Universities are not immune from data loss and and data misuse.
With grey market companies specializing in selling personal data, for as little as £100 per item, the question is not who has access to you medical records but who does not?