Steve Connor: A geek's recipe for disaster on the NHS

Science Notebook: Whenever the health service goes in for big computer projects the outcome is disaster

The NHS is sending out thousands of glossy pamphlets to homes across England explaining that personal medical records are about to be made available on a nationwide computer network operated by health professionals. In true form, the NHS computer geeks behind the plan have given this information a new acronym, SCRs, for summary care records.

The idea is that whichever hospital or clinic a patient goes to, his or her details will be available at the click of a mouse. This will replace the time-consuming process of letters, emails, faxes, or telephone calls to GP surgeries, says the leaflet.

It all seems eminently reasonable except that making records available on a government computer network will inevitably mean that they are more likely to be accessed by those who who have no need to see them. It's not just about the possibility of them being put on a memory stick and being left on the 5.30 from Waterloo. Putting medical records on a government computer network will almost certainly make it easier for third parties to see them – whether it is "legitimate" organisations such as the security services, or criminals.

The fact that the NHS has made it quite difficult to opt out of this arrangement by not including an appropriate opt-out form with the glossy pamphlet only suggests that the geeks running the progamme know that many people would rather not have an SCR if they were given the choice.

History has shown that whenever the health service goes in for big computer projects the inevitable outcome is disaster and a huge bill for the taxpayer. And it is far from certain whether this new government computer network will be any more secure and "confidential" than the others that it has set up at vast expense to the public, and huge profitability for computer companies.

A battle of wills

Some of the most innocuous personal information, in the wrong hands, can be used in such a way that it causes distress. Suppose, for instance, that someone calls you on your home telephone in the evening, asks for you by name and suggests that you may be in need of a will. Perhaps this sounds like a fairly harmless form of direct marketing for someone trying to make money out of writing wills. But suppose you had been ex-directory for more than 10 years and that you had just that day been diagnosed with a terminal disease that had been placed on your SCR computer record – not so harmless.

Last year the Guild of Will Writers, run by a company called Casey and Associates in Rainham, Kent, called my home, asking for me personally and suggesting I needed a will. It was a mystery how they got my name and number because I have been ex-directory for more than 10 years.

Fortunately I don't suffer a terminal illness, but how did they get my name? The Telephone Preference Service, which is supposed to police direct marketing by phone, could offer no satisfactory explanation. "Programming error" is all the the Guild of Will Writers was prepared to admit. So easy it is to get out of a hole by blaming the computer.