Willing Providers

Medical records will not be openly sold for commercial gain until after the 2015 election, unless the Government's intentions are pre-empted through chicanery or incompetence. There is, of course, a wide and convenient range of ministers for chicanery and incompetence; and the one who also happens to be the Minister for Health and News Corporation has given a rock-solid pledge that patient confidentiality will be respected for as long as the Government's chums in the private sector deem it expedient. It is not as yet clear whether Jeremy C Hunt's pledge is rock-solid in the same sense as the one about cutting the deficit and not the NHS; or whether Jeremy C Hunt's pledge is rock-solid in the same sense as all those others from 2010 which were recently consigned to the dark net; or whether Jeremy C Hunt's pledge is rock-solid in the sense that it rests upon some credible guarantee, such as the ritual sacrifice of a spad on the altar of Rupert Murdoch. Doubtless the matter will be cleared up soon enough. In the meantime, we have the assurance of the Minister for Health and News Corporation, and we all know by now what that is worth.