NHS leaders discussed the creation of a centralised database that would give real-time access to anonymised medical records

NHS chiefs held a closed meeting with giant technology and pharmaceutical companies to consider how billions of pounds could be made from a central database of patient records.

The scheme better to harness anonymised medical data would address concerns that the health service had given away intellectual property rights too cheaply in existing deals with companies such as Google’s DeepMind.

Local NHS IT officers have criticised the service’s leaders for discussing it “behind closed doors”, saying that a lack of transparency could erode public trust. The NHS denies acting secretively.

At the meeting in London in October, officials including the chairman and the chief executive of NHS England, Lord Prior of Brampton and Sir Simon Stevens, met representatives of companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services