- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what professional and other workers are defined as health professionals for the purpose of determining access to electronic patient records.
Answer
A health professional means a doctor of medicine, nurse, dental practitioner, midwife, pharmacist or another professional as described in Section 69 of the Data Protection Act 1998.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what security has been put in place to ensure that aggregated waiting list data has a functionality to ensure (a) patient consent and (b) proactive rather than retrospective security on access to data by NHS administrators not involved in the clinical care of the patients.
Answer
Aggregated waiting list data do not contain patient identifiable data and may be processed lawfully without patient consent.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-23303 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 May 2009, whether it will provide an answer that addresses data formats as opposed to network protocols.
Answer
The Scottish eHealth Programme recommends a standards-based approach when choosing or developing ICT systems, with a preference for open standards to ensure the maximum level of interoperability. The eHealth N3 network allows for standard data formats to be communicated between applications, and a good example of this is the SCI Gateway application that enables the secure transfer of documents between primary and secondary care using SIGN standards and national XML definitions. Indeed, SCI Gateway has now been deployed in Wales.
The eHealth standards library, published on the eHealth website, lists standards statements that have either been approved or are in progress.
A further notable development in this area is that, as part of the national procurement for a Patient Management System (TrakCare), a contract has been signed for an integration product called Ensemble (which lies at the heart of TrakCare). This will enable interoperability between applications within and across boards, and relies on the definition and adoption of standard data formats, many of which are open and international.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3O-8345 by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 November 2010 (Official Report c. 20942), whether it is now in a position to report how many simultaneous users of the clinical portal are required by the individual NHS board systems and what the maximum delay will be to access an electronic record when the systems are operating at maximum capacity.
Answer
Clinical portal is not a single system but a range of joined up products and services that will provide clinicians with a single route to access priority information. NHS boards are currently working in regional consortia to determine how best to deliver clinical portal based on their different starting points and technical environments. Key considerations will be the availability of priority information held electronically within national or local NHS board clinical systems, and the technical infrastructure on which clinical portal will be deployed. Detailed design of the portal, including the level of performance which is acceptable to clinicians for front-line use, will be determined by boards. Clinical portal responsiveness is likely to be impacted more by the wider technical environment and the number of different clinical information sources than by the number of simultaneous clinical portal users. The incremental approach adopted to delivery of clinical portal will enable the portal to grow and develop at a pace that is in step with the clinical usage.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the NHS boards signed up to TrakCare patient management system have the records aggregated at one site.
Answer
At the current time only one board has this situation prior to implementing TrakCare.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what threat model it has used in establishing security policy in the emergency care record system and the new computer records systems, in particular the TrakCare patient management system.
Answer
NHS Scotland uses information security risk analysis and management methods to identify and mitigate risks. The NHS Scotland Security Policy states that boards will undertake a survey of their information systems and data, and make an assessment of the likely security risks, including an evaluation of the likely impact and occurrence of any threats. Boards then introduce measures to mitigate these risks. This approach was taken in the evaluation of the Emergency Care Summary record and will be used as TrakCare is deployed in boards.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is a computerised administrative register in the NHS in which sensitive information such as (a) contraceptive data, (b) compulsory mental health measures, (c) GUM clinic information and (d) termination of pregnancies exists, which is not anonymized or anonymized by full post code, part post code, age or gender.
Answer
(a) Contraceptive data is recorded and collected at individual health board level on the various clinical systems and may contain personal identifiable information.
(b) Compulsory detention under Mental Health Scotland Act: All compulsory detentions are notified by the NHS board to the Mental Welfare Commission, Edinburgh. Notification includes patient demographic data, date and type of section etc. Mental Welfare Commission have an Information Management Portal which is used to maintain individual service user records (containing full patient demographic data). If the patient is detained under the Mental Health Scotland Act this is recorded against the service user record and the notification form received from the individual NHS board is scanned and uploaded in to the service user record.
(c) GUM clinic information: Client data is held in NASH (National Sexual Health System). This includes patient demographic data as well as administrative and clinical data.
(d) Termination of pregnancies notified to Chief Medical Officer under provisions of Abortion Act 1967: Notification includes patient demographic information. ISD anonymise data for statistical presentation.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what reporting systems it has or will put in place for recording and central reporting to itself and the Information Commissioner of cases of inappropriate access to electronic patient data.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not centrally hold information on the number of unauthorised access to electronic patient data. It is the responsibility of individual NHS boards to record, report and investigate in line with their own local policies and procedures.
The Scottish Government encourages NHS boards to bring serious data breaches including serious unauthorised accesses to the Health Department and the ICO simultaneously.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive under what circumstances the police will have access to patient electronic data and files.
Answer
The Data Protection Act 1998, permits uses or disclosures of personal data for the purpose of the prevention or detection of crime or the prosecution or apprehension of offenders. NHS boards have mechanisms in place to respond to appropriate information requests from the police.
The Scottish Government published, CEL (2008)13 Information Sharing between the NHSS and the Police. This letter enclosed guidance, developed with the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, setting out how NHS boards and police forces should work together to develop a consistent approach to the sharing of information to promote the prevention and detection of crime, while respecting and safeguarding the interests of patients and the public in the confidentiality of personal health information.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 June 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 June 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-23568 by Nicola Sturgeon on 14 May 2009, what it defines as the minimum data set for electronic health records in a clinical portal system.
Answer
The Clinical Change Leadership Group conducted a wide survey of clinicians in 2009, receiving well over 3,000 responses from all parts of the service. There was a high degree of consensus around the information clinical staff considered to be of most importance. The Clinical Portal Programme Board accepted the recommendation of CCLG and the eHealth Leads Group that the following information content should be prioritised for Phase 1 Clinical Portal:
| Category | Information |
| Patient Health Summary | Past medical history Current problem list Current medications Allergies Alerts |
| Clinical Letters | Referral Hospital discharge Outpatient clinic |
| Diagnostic Tests Results | Laboratory results Radiology results and images Other diagnostic text results |
| Knowledge Support | Local clinical guidelines National clinical guidelines eBNF |
