Pressure was growing today for the government to intervene to stop an increasingly controversial upload of patient data from practices.

Two leading GP organisations called for an “immediate delay” after campaigners launched legal action against NHS Digital. The Labour Party today also stepped in to call for a delay and public consultation on the proposals. The upload is due to take place on 1 July and patients have until 23 June to opt out. NHS Digital has promised that data will be pseudonymised.

The Royal College of GPs said it has now written to health secretary Matt Hancock, urging delay. A statement said: “The College supports the principle of improved and more secure sharing of data for legitimate healthcare planning and research purposes, but it is critical that appropriate safeguards are in place to guard against any inappropriate uses of this data. Most importantly, any sharing of data must be transparent and maintain public trust in how general practice and the NHS more widely uses their information.”

Dr Farah Jameel, lead for IT on the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: “Recent weeks have shown that communication from NHS Digital to the public has been completely inadequate, causing confusion for patients and GPs alike. Family doctors have a duty to their patients and have their best interest at heart – so are understandably hesitant to comply with something that patients may know nothing about and that they themselves do not fully understand, even if this is a legal requirement. With less than four weeks until the programme gets fully under way it’s clear that the timeline needs a hard reset.”

Dr Arjun Dhillon, clinical director and Caldicott guardian at NHS Digital, wrote on Friday: “The majority of the public support patient data being used for the benefit of the NHS and to improve treatment. They also expect that this data is secure and used in a way that respects privacy. We understand this. Indeed, this is why NHS Digital has built a new system to manage the data that are already being collected and used every day. The new GP data for planning and research system brings more security and wider oversight to ensure data can only be accessed for health research and care planning. Only the minimum data required for any project is shared, and this data go through a process so nobody can be identified from them.”