NHS patient records will be flogged off to profiteering private-sector insurance and drug companies when a giant database is set up later this year, campaigners warned yesterday.

English medical records will be fed into the new
care.data database controlled by arm's-length body the Health and Social Care Information Centre from March.

Patients will be able to opt-out of having their information shared.

NHS England said that once it is fully open in May, organisations such as charities and universities can apply for access to the database - saving lives through making research easier.

But campaign group Health Emergency director John Lister warned that private-sector buyers would use the information for profit.

"The problem is you can't trust the private sector not to use the information for bad reasons," he said.

"I wouldn't trust it as far as I can throw it. The current government is in the pockets of the private sector big time."

Researchers and other analysts have been able to apply for pseudonymous data - where some personal identifiers are removed - from hospital statistics for many years by applying to the HSCIC, NHS England said.

But privacy experts said there would be no way for the public to work out who has their medical records or what their data will be used for.

Extracted, or sold, information will contain NHS numbers, dates of birth, postcodes and ethnicity and gender, the Guardian claimed yesterday, meaning that private firms could identify patients based on other information they have on record.