HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting’s plans to sell GP data to the private sector “make no sense,” warned experts raising fresh privacy concerns yesterday.

Campaigners also warned Labour’s “pro-business approach to data” had the potential for further loss of public trust in the health service.

Government has confirmed officials are looking at streamlining pricing structures into a centralised “national health data service” expected to be unveiled this spring.

Edinburgh University professor of neurology and clinical epidemiology Cathie Sudlow has conducted a government-backed review into the way data is stored and used by the NHS.

She told the Financial Times that Whitehall is studying proposals that involved “recovering the costs and value of accessing data” which would be anonymised and impossible to link to individual patients.

Prof Sudlow admitted that the idea of large multinational companies profiting off the back of the NHS “is not palatable for many people” and her report warned that “undue emphasis on [selling data] damages trust” in the system.

But Mr Streeting in October said that data “is the future of the NHS” and Britain “could lead the world in medical research.”

He plans to create a “single access system” for information from GP surgeries, hospitals and other care settings after NHS England awarded a controversial £330 million contract to US spy tech giant Palantir in 2023 to develop a new platform.

Today Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “The Data Use and Access Bill currently going through Parliament illustrates Labour’s pro-business approach to data as a valuable resource, and highlights the potential for further loss of public trust.

“It aims to make data, including our personal heath data, widely available to public authorities and the private sector.

“The Secretary of State will be given power to erode safeguards over use of personal data for research.

“Labour intends to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses at the expense of safeguards for citizens.

“An alternative vision would include investment in a publicly owned national digital infrastructure aimed at storing and managing NHS data currently being processed through cloud computing services that are owned by large technology companies.

“There must be safeguards against the private sector gaining access to data for profit, and the public should be fully informed about the use of people’s health data and the right to protection and privacy.”

A spokesman for Momentum said: “Selling off patients’ data is no way to fix the NHS.

“We must fully renationalise our healthcare system and defend it from corporate interests, not welcome them.”

Campaign group MedConfidential has warned having a single record like this will be open to abuse.

Today co-ordinator Sam Smith said: “The thing that Wes Streeting thinks is new… is they are going to sell access to the written notes, the GP notes: ‘Why did you prescribe this 15-year-old a contraceptive pill?’” 

He also warned that “any money that the NHS makes out of this will be paid by companies who want to sell products and services back to the NHS, so they’ll just charge the costs back to the NHS with interest and overheads.  

“It’s just moving money between NHS budgets, having a chunk skimmed off each time, and calling it economic growth.”

Pointing to previous government announcements over selling NHS data to the private sector dating to before Matt Hancock’s term as health secretary, he added: “It’s kind of hard to put a price on the information… it has never worked.

“What are you going to charge and how much — everyone disagrees and anything that is produced will get gamed because everyone wants to pay as little as possible.

“Is there going to be a new model? The Department of Health has to write it down and everybody has to not laugh at them and so far in what’s six years of work they have failed to write anything down because it makes no sense.”

National Pensioners Convention general secretary Jan Shortt said: “The NPC and other healthcare organisations have been challenging the use of Palantir and the lack of clarity around patient rights and consultation. 

“Wes Streeting would do well to heed the fact that the NHS still belongs to the people, and private industries making profit from using our data will not be tolerated.”

A government spokesperson said: “We welcome the comprehensive Sudlow Review and are considering the recommendations ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, Life Sciences Sector Plan and 10-Year Health Plan. Our priority will always be to ensure that data is used to benefit patients.”