Firm linked to tobacco giant given patient data

HEALTH bosses gave cancer patients’ medical records to a controversial US firm associated with a tobacco company, it emerged last night.

Data belonging to almost 180,000 patients was passed to William E. Wecker Associates, which testifies on behalf of tobacco giants in lawsuits.

It has acted for cigarette maker Philip Morris International for almost 30 years.

The information was taken from NHS records by Public Health England (PHE) without the consent of cancer patients or their families.

There are concerns that the US firm could use the data to fight regulation or, in legal cases against cigarette manufacturers, cherry-pick statistics to downplay the risks of smoking.

Records reportedly seen by the Daily Telegraph show that the information, which covers 179,040 lung tumours diagnosed between 2009 and 2013, was given out last July.

It followed a Freedom of Information Act request from the US firm, which said it wanted to examine lung cancer trends in Australia, Ireland, the UK and the US.

‘Incredibly distressing’

PHE claimed it was not been aware of the link between William E. Wecker and Philip Morris, and officials said they were told the study aimed to ‘identify strategies to achieve a healthier global population’.

Charities have condemned PHE’s actions, saying it would be ‘incredibly distressing’ for patients to discover their medical data was being used by an industry responsible for so many cancer cases.

Privacy campaigners want the Commons health select committee to investigate the release of information.

PHE has access to thousands of medical records, which come from NHS hospitals and screening services. But patients have not say in whether their information can be passed on, because PHE is not covered by the NHS rules on consent.

Dr Jem Rashbass, PHE’s national director for disease registration and cancer analysis, said: ‘We released this data under our legal duty to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

‘Patient confidentiality is of utmost importance and no sensitive or identifying patient information has been released. Any organisation or person can submit an FoI request and is legally entitled to a response, provided there is no exemption.’