To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to allowing the routine and pseudonymised linking of existing care audit clinical outcome data to NHS activity data in order to make the UK a more attractive destination for medical research and innovation.
Answered on
31 October 2017
NHS England funds the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NACPOP) which comprises up to 40 audits and reviews, managed by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). National clinical audits commissioned through the NCAPOP already, in most cases, link clinical outcome data to activity data such as the Hospital Episodes Statistics to give a rounded picture of the quality of care. NHS England is currently working with NHS Digital and HQIP to explore how to further improve the ability to link the data, as well as the timeliness and accessibility of clinical audit. The aim is to optimise use of the data to support effective commissioning of healthcare services and stimulate improvement in the quality of care by, for example, linking with electronic patient records in the future.
There are no limitations on who may apply for the data. In order to maximise the potential of the data for uses such as medical research and innovation, NHS Digital, who carry out some of the audits on behalf of HQIP, aim to share data wherever possible, subject to the appropriate legal and confidentiality requirements being met to safeguard public trust. All requests for pseudonymised and identifiable data under the Data Controllership of NHS Digital are managed through its central Data Access Request Service.