Got Qualms™

ALT The original 1969 illustration of Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation as it appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association. The Ladder features eight “rungs” that describe three general forms of citizen power in democratic decision-making: Nonparticipation (no power), Degrees of Tokenism (counterfeit power), and Degrees of Citizen Power (actual power).

ALT At a heated session of the Commons health committee recently, MPs heard evidence from the charity Doctors of the World detailing their fears that the use of their data had led heavily pregnant women to delay seeing a GP for months. They also said they were aware of people choosing to wait until their situation was an emergency before attending A&E as they were not then required to give personal details. Wollaston’s letter to NHS Digital says that in drawing up the MOU there has been “a failure to pay due regard to the underlying ethical considerations and potential unintended consequences for public health”. She adds that the sharing of confidential patient data has gone ahead despite a warning from Public Health England that “it could present a serious risk to public health” that was “comprehensively ignored”. Wollaston says NHS Digital’s invocation of “the potential harm that might arise by not processing these tracing requests” – that is, that people will be left without help in t