How doctors could spy on your wee in bizarre bid to ease pressure on NHS

THE government could spy on our wee with microchips in bogs to ease pressure on the NHS.

The Health Secretary today said monitoring urinals with new tech could help doctors spot diseases early.

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Steve Barclay even compared it to sharing information on Facebook or Instagram, saying: "People trust a company in California with data more than they trust the UK government."

In a speech at the Spectator Health conference he said: "Put a chip in a urinal and it will tell someone who doesn't even realise they have a condition."

And he urged a national "conversation with patients” about "the right opportunities around data".

Mr Barclay went on to suggest that high tech data collection methods like toilet chips will bust NHS backlogs and boost Britain’s economy.

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But he insisted it could only be done with the right consent.

“I think if patients want to be able to get early treatment and are therefore willing to lean on their data, providing that can be done in the right way with the right safeguards that is the conversation we should be having," he said.

“That in turn also creates an opportunity for UK plc around our life sciences and around our future exports because it will build an ecosystem around our universities.”

But last night Labour panned the idea of toilet surveillance, accusing Mr Barclay of “taking the p*ss”.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "After 12 years of Conservative mismanagement, NHS waiting times are already down the toilet.

"Instead he should adopt Labour’s plan, abolish non-doms, and train thousands of new doctors and nurses."

Meanwhile, Tory MPs accused their party of spending too much time flirting with the nanny state.

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One Tory MP blasted: "This ridiculous idea should just be flushed down the toilet. The Conservative Party needs to lose its appetite for big nanny state and fast.

“Any policy that invades the right to privacy without explicit consent – including bugging toilets, should be dropped.

“The public deserve to do basic activities like going to the toilet without the state analysing their every move."