Originally Posted by
Sunfish
No point in the DAS making a statement because nothing he or the government says can bind a future government, period.
All it would take for example is a future accident traced to a mental health issue and the public would clamour for pilots records to be compulsorily trawled for any mental health symptoms, no matter how small or ancient and the government of the day would gladly comply. Data protection my arse.
From what I've heard anecdotally, a lot of professional pilots already have two doctors, a DAME and the real one - a subterfuge allegedly forced on them by AVMED's unhelpful attitude to some medical conditions.
Compulsory electronic records would drive such folk into avoiding treatment altogether or self medication - making us all less safe.
I agree that everyone in aviation is right to be skeptical of a government run electronic health record. Many of my colleagues in medicine will be opting of the currently proposed system, unless the benefit of having their record so readily available outweighs the risk of privacy breaches.
AVMED at CASA is in the business of mitigating risk and liability at all cost. They are not in the business of applying reasonable evidence-based approaches to medical presentations that place the pilot at the centre of care. I have seen AVMED overrule countless expert opinions in support of medical certification because of negligible long-term risk they'd prefer to sweep away (in the remote chance it comes back to bite them).
I completely support any patient/person who has reservations about the health record and would always encourage them to be critically aware of anything that poses a risk to their best interests (both in the short and long term).