Has anyone else seen the front of this weekes computer weekly ?.

There is a bit on the front page about the NHS midwives now having laptops to give babies Unique ID numbers when they are born so that "medical records can be consistant." - Is it me or is that a f'ing blueprint for national id tags wrapped up in some warm fuzzy labouresqe speak.

Some years down the line all they have to do is match up the UID (unique ID) with the persons DNA (perhaps from automated dna testing records) and hey presto national DNA database. Thats just for starters. Just think of the potential abuse that could happen with this

 

Driving Licence number, NI number, NHS record number, they've been tracking you for years mate.

Don't forget they can read your number plate wherever you go, pinpoint your location with a mobile phone, use facial recognition systems with city centre CCTV and even watch you from a grassy knoll.

 

I say bring it on, only people who suffer are the scumbags.

Ok so there's the potential of abuse etc - I got more important things to worry about

 

Only people who are up to no good should be bothered by being recognised/traced/tracked, surely?

 

A good friend of mine is a Community Midwife and she doesn't have a laptop. Yet... Will ask her what the crack is.

 

Being a midwife she should definately know what the crack is..

 

I have nothing to hide either, its just I dont like the idea of the big brother state.

 

Boom-tish. Let that one wide open...

 

NHS Numbers 4 babies is not in a position to scale to anything more than just about managing to give a number out for each baby born. (You'll have to trust me on this!).

I have heard vicious rumours that the numbers given out havent always been strictly speaking "unique" either

There are however lots (and I mean lots) of things in the pipeline for more centrally held data for the NHS that dwarf NN4b. I for one, welcome any sign of the NHS dragging itself into the 21st century.

Deano

 

Babies, like every patient that enters a hospital, are already given a unique number. It's on their notes, it's on every letter that passes through Registration from their GP, it's on their X-Rays, their prescriptions, their Pro-formas....

It's nothing new.

 

Does the mother get an invoice these days then?

 

It may be nothing new, but a central application "NHS Numbers for Babies" (NN4B) is new, as is the increasing drive towards centralised data and applications - so endless streams of paper doesn't have to be sent between sites.

Deano