It was originally intended that the database system would be upgraded in the future to add:[7] However, following the Government announcement in October 2010 this is no longer envisaged.
[8] In December 2006, Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, wrote to GPs telling them that letters from patients requesting that their records should not be uploaded should be sent to Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, for 'full consideration', causing consternation among privacy campaigners.
[9] As a result of pressure from privacy campaigners, the British Medical Association (BMA), the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and a report by the Department of Health's 'patients tsar' Harry Cayton (the Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on the Summary Care Record[10]), the Government agreed that patients would be able to opt out of the Summary Care Record.
The Department of Health agreed to make funding available to them within the 2009-2010 financial year for public information campaigns.
On 16 April 2010 the Department of Health suspended the implementation of Summary Care Records in the areas leading the roll-out, following calls to do so by the British Medical Association.
[18] A week later it was reported that several primary care trusts and the NHS East of England Strategic Health Authority were seeking a dispensation to continue with their implementation.
[15][23] In March 2010 the British Medical Association asked the British Government to suspend the roll-out of the database as it was an "imperfect system" being rushed into service prematurely,[24] amid accusations that the system is insecure and that data has been uploaded without giving patients the opportunity to opt out.