Plan for access to medical records

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IT giants such as Google or Microsoft could host the information, which would be accessed securely via personal computers in the way bank account details are.

Patients could improve communications with their doctors by adding details or share experiences online with others facing similar health problems, the party believes.

The plan will be set out on Monday as part of the outcome of an independent review of NHS IT commissioned by shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien.

Similar schemes are already used in the United States and Canada, where a local record is also held by the doctor overseeing a patient's care.

Mr O'Brien said: "Giving patients greater control over their health records is crucial if we are to make the NHS more patient-centred.

"Labour's attitude to our personal data is misguided. They seem to think they own it and, all too often, they have been appallingly careless in looking after it. The Government's monolithic and costly IT system doesn't involve patients at all. Yet in patients' hands, health records could do so much more.

"We would have a clearer picture of our health and our care and we would be able to add information to help doctors treat us better. This could make a huge difference in helping us understand how to live healthier lifestyles."

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said the idea was an interesting one already being looked at by the NHS.

It could be used by epileptics to record when they had fits or people with depression to identify triggers of their condition, helping clinicians, he told The Observer.