The Trust needs to have a policy on Information Sharing.

Where I recently worked I was involved with reviewing a proposed Information 
Sharing Protocol.

I had a meeting with clinicians eg dentist and health visitor, and there 
were issues raised by the dentist that if he had a strapping patient who 
reacted rather violently or aggressively in certan situations he might wish 
to tell the hospital to whom he referred the patient.

Quite clearly if he were to tell the patient that he was going to mention 
this to the hospital dentist he might be putting himself at some risk. 
Naturally he would consider it his professional duty to inform his colleague 
at the hospital of this fact.

As for whether information should be passed to Social Services, I am not an 
expert in this field but this touches on cases of child protection etc.

Nick Landau

Information Governance Consultant

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J.S.M.Whitaker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: [data-protection] NHS Trust sharing information with Social 
Services - explicit consent?


"DPA - SCHEDULE 3

  CONDITIONS RELEVANT FOR PURPOSES OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLE: PROCESSING OF
SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA
      1. The data subject has given his explicit consent to the processing
of the personal data."

His medical state is sensitive information, therefore explicit consent is
required.  A leaflet may be a good source of information but you need to get
(and record) explicit consent.

Regards

Jim

======================================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Gadsden
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 1:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] NHS Trust sharing information with Social
Services - explicit consent?

We have received a complaint recently from a patient's family, which (among
a raft of issues) includes a DPA issue.

Staff on the ward contacted Social Services in order to ensure provision of
care for the patient in the community after discharge.  It is not clear
whether this was discussed with the patient.  The family only became aware
that this had happened when Social Services contacted them to discuss the
discharge arrangements with the family, at the same time the family were
told certain details of the patient's health status that they had not
previously known (the hospital staff had not told them).

I take the view that explicit patient consent should have been obtained from
the patient before information was shared with Social Services (he was
mentally capable of providing consent), and that this should have been
written in his health records in some way, even if only as a brief note to
the effect that his discharge arrangements had been discussed with him.

Alternative opinion within the Trust is that providing patients with a
general leaflet on "Protection and Use of Patient Information" which
includes "Everyone working in the NHS has a duty to keep information about
you confidential.  However, you may be receiving care from other people, as
well as the NHS.  to enable us to work together for your benefit, we may
need to share some information about you." is sufficient to assume implicit
consent under the Data Protection Act, and we are covered by that leaflet
(if we can prove that it was handed out to the patient or his relative)

What are your view on this one?

I am aware of the fact that practically it is difficult to obtain and record
explicit consent to sharing information on busy wards in each and every
circumstance, but I am also very uneasy about assuming that patients are
happy for us to share information (even for the best possible reasons)
unless they tell us otherwise.

Your help with this one is very much appreciated.

Anne


Anne Gadsden AHRIM
Information Governance Officer
Information Services Department
North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Cumberland Infirmary
Carlisle CA2 7HY
01228 814539 (direct line)

e-mail: [log in to unmask]


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