While the law protects information about individual patients' treatment, it currently does not protect the uses that information is put to. A recent court case (The Queen and the Dept of Health ex parte Source Informatics Ltd 1999) allowed a company to sell patient information to the pharmaceutical industry so they could target their marketing to GPs more effectively.
The Government had argued that GPs cooperating in this scheme were in breach of their duty of confidence to patients. The scheme could also lead to unnecessary increase in the cost of drugs, as companies could use the information to sell their higher priced - but no more effective - products.
Our move is to protect patient information. Why should companies make money out of patients and the NHS in this way?
This Government has published more information about the NHS than any previous Government. It is hardly likely to restrict independent criticism of the NHS.