The island’s data protection watchdog has not been involved in the process to allow medicinal cannabis prescribers to view patients’ confidential GP records, it has emerged.
Health Minister Tom Binet said that “advice has, to date, not been sought” from the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner, adding that the “refinement of the process” for granting clinics access to “relevant medical records is still ongoing”.
He was responding to a question from Deputy Karen Wilson, who asked what guidance had been requested from the island’s data protection regulator and how patient privacy was being safeguarded as access for private clinics expands.
It comes after the Health Minister revealed earlier this month that arrangements have been made to enable all professionals who are prescribing cannabis to directly access their patient’s GP record in a bid to “support safe prescribing”.
Concerns had been raised that patients with a history of serious mental illness were not disclosing this to medicinal cannabis prescribers, with senior clinicians previously highlighting a “notable increase” in mental-health admissions among people prescribed high quantities of the drug.
This week, Deputy Binet stressed that GPs remain the data controllers for their patients’ records.
He added he would “continue to work with the Primary Care Governance Board and the Primary Care Systems Board to ensure patient privacy and data security”.
Work is also under way to ensure that medicinal cannabis prescribing is controlled in law.
Express understand that this will include new requirements on who can prescribe medicinal cannabis and the standards they must adhere to – including a requirement to review patients’ medical record before prescribing.
Around 4,000 islanders were dispensed over 53,000 private prescriptions for medicinal cannabis last year.
