DIN News
The official journal of the Doctors' Independent Network			Summer 2001/Issue no. 17

New era for DIN
Dear Colleagues,
This letter marks the beginning of a new era for the Doctors Independent Network. The practice of medicine in the United Kingdom is in flux. Not only are things changing, but the rate of change is increasing. Basic tenets are being questioned, icons broken, and much that was good seems in danger of being thrown out with the bad. The DIN Board recognises some of these changes as right and inevitable, but has set itself the task of assisting DIN members in the preservation of our key professional values, without which the medical profession would cease to exist. DIN supports patient rights and a patient centred approach to General Practice. However, it seems that	the rights of clinicians to fair treatment and a normal life are being trampled by a government with no perception of the difficulties of its GP workforce. We should also be clear that pretending that we can meet unrealistic demands without extra money and a vast increase in medical manpower will rapidly backfire on us, and allow the government to do what it does best - transfer the blame to the doctors. How can we redress the balance of our lives and continue to serve our patients with ever increasing demands on our time for continuous professional development, data analysis and clinical audit? DIN doesn't pretend to have all the	answers, but we do have a very good handle on clinical audit and practice data analysis. The new DIN website has been developed to allow data providers to see and manipulate their own data on-line, and conduct a range of audits, either as individual practices or as self-determined groups which can be as small as two practices or as large as a PCG. A practice can compare itself with all other practices in aggregate, or aggregated similar practices. The results of these audits can be downloaded in pivot table and graph format directly onto your own copy of EXCEL. Using this quick and very easy technique, we believe there is great potential for true continuous	clinical audit to be carried out by us on behalf of our members. DIN believes this will assist members in the areas of continuous professional development and revalidation to a considerable degree. We are actively pursuing DIN's own dedicated 2Mbit fibre connection to the Internet. DIN on the NHSnet is a lower priority unless we can find out how to get the cost down. Kind regards to you all.          Paul Steventon,             DIN Chairman

The end of patient confidentiality?
Throughout the last days of this Parliament, the government has been nationalising something dear to us: our patients' confidential medical records, as stored on our practice computers. Astonishingly, Clause 65 of the Health and Social Act has changed the law governing the confidentiality of patient records. The Health Secretary now has	the power to open our practice's computer records, to ANY organisation he considers in the public interest, requiring neither the knowledge nor consent of patient or doctor. This makes it impossible for any GP connected to the NHSNet or giving identified data to a government body to guarantee confidentiality. No indemnity is	given to doctors. Patients can still sue their GP if their secrets leave the practice! DIN wholly supports patient and privacy groups who are furious this has been done without wider consultation or debate. The DIN system of de-identified data donation was saved from the Act only after intensive lobbying, and remains unaffected.      See page four...

2	Chairman's diary	6	Conference notes
	Current developments within DIN		Alison Young visits Harrogate and looks forward to the 10th World Congress on Medical Informatics
3	The new-look DIN Board	8	Mobile computing
	We introduce the new board members		Nick Barrie gives a comprehensive overview of the latest laptops and compact computer
4	Health & Safety Care Act
	Quotes about the Act from leading commentators