NAT (National AIDS Trust) and Doctors of the World have produced a briefing on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Department of Health and the Home Office on patient information-sharing. You can read the full briefing here here

The briefing notes that the MoU violates patient confidentiality and marks ‘the intrusion of a political agenda into how our medical records are kept and safeguarded’. It undermines the doctor-patient relationship and will likely impact on the most vulnerable in our society, children, pregnant women, victims of trafficking and destitute and refused asylum-seekers, who are entitled to NHS care but will feel unsafe accessing it knowing their information will be shared with the Home Office.

The briefing calls for a suspension for the MoU until a full consultation and proper scrutiny of the agreement, its legal basis and its possible impact has been carried out, recognizing that to date there has been no public consultation or debate. A letter has also been sent to Andy Williams, Chief Executive of NHS Digital, to express the above-mentioned concerns.