Data Sharing Approvals Processes Reviewed By HSCIC

The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is revising the processes it follows when sharing data with other organisations.

The organisation says it is particularly focused on how and why interested parties should be applying to access healthcare datasets, including the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

According to HSCIC, it intends to conduct data sharing in a manner that is transparent, operating and making decisions against clear and open policies and processes in order to build public trust.

“We are therefore undertaking work to improve our policies, processes and governance for the sharing of data to ensure that they are fully robust and transparent,” it said.

HSCIC Publishes Register Of Firms With Patient Data Access

The data sharing practices review follows on from a HSCIC announcement earlier this month that saw the publication of a list of all companies who have had access to patient data since April 2013 when the Information Centre was founded.

Private healthcare firms like Bupa and Care UK along with consultancy firms including PwC and Ernst and Young were among those on the register.

The list of organisations granted access was made public after calls for more transparency were made following the controversial care.data scheme.

However, the Commons health select committee that is investigating the care.data programme says that the NHS Information Centre, the HSCIC predecessor, had been found approving and releasing HES data for uses that were claimed to be not allowed.

Furthermore, the Centre did not having a strong auditing process in place to ensure those granted access to data were using it in an appropriate manner.

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