Patients with complex conditions are now able to carry full details of their medical histories, including information that could their save lives, on a credit-card-sized smart card.

Doctors say that people who are worried about the security of their medical records are choosing to carry sensitive details of medication, allergies and previous illness in their wallet rather than let the Government put them on the web.

Ministers plan to create a national database to store electronic medical records for 50 million people in England, but, according to the makers of the card, recent data losses by Whitehall departments and fears over confidentiality of the system are leading patients to buy the £40 Health eCard as an alternative. A total of 21 GP surgeries and 300 patients, mainly in London and the South East, are already using it.

The device can be updated after every visit to a GP and plugs into the USB port of any PC, allowing doctors to access emergency medical information. Patients and GPs could access more detailed information using a password.

The company behind the card, Health eSystems, based in Stanmore, northwest London, had said that the card enables patients to check their records for accuracy, to update them when they want and to allow any doctor they consult to see them. Referral letters to hospital, vaccination dates and digital X-rays or test results can also be stored on the card.

The company, which pays GPs £10 to download a patient’s records, says that encryption makes the cards secure. The Department of Health has also stated that its official, online-based system will be secure, because only a “summary care record” with minimal data about patients will be uploaded to the Spine, as the national database will be known.

The database is part of a £12.4 billion programme to upgrade NHS computer systems. The National Audit Office predicts a completion date of 2014-15 for the official introduction of electronic records across the whole of England, but there are concerns about privacy, wrangles over consent and the recent termination of contracts with key software suppliers.

The project, which is already running two years behind schedule, will include a portal known as Health-Space that allows patients to view their records, while doctors and nurses will carry chip and PIN cards to access more confidential information, such as information on mental illness, HIV status, pregnancy, drug-taking or alcoholism.

Julian Godlee, a GP using the eCard technology at the Maltings Surgery in St Albans, Hertfordshire, said that concerns had been heightened by the recent series of data losses by Whitehall departments. “We have all recently witnessed the debacle over lost records of one sort or another that threatens to compromise the security of private individuals as they go about their daily lives,” he said.

Michael Summers, vice-chairman of the Patients’ Association, said: “There are a lot of people who want to hold their own records. I see no reason why that is not the future.”

Only two NHS primary care trusts have uploaded their patients’ summary care records to the Spine, in pilot schemes described as “clunky” in an independent academic study by University College London.

Some NHS hospitals have bought alternative software, at extra expense, to replace the older system of paper-based records as it may be years before the official versions can be installed.

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