NHS to scrap single database of patients' medical details

Care.data scheme to close after Fiona Caldicott review calls for tougher measures to keep information confidential

The government's scheme to store patients' medical information in a single database, which ran into massive problems over confidentiality, is to be scrapped, NHS England has said.

The decision to axe the scheme, care.data, follows the publication of two reports that support far greater transparency over what happens to the information, and opt-outs for patients who want their data seen only by those directly caring for them.