The TPP (The Phoenix Partnership) aka SystmOne notification for this reads as follows:

 

“PP have been approached by the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care to provide anonymised information that shows the prescribing of anti-psychotic drugs for patients with dementia.

 

The attached PDF is a letter from Julie Henderson (Head of Clinical Audit Support Unit at the NHS ICHSC) and Professor Alistair Burns (National Clinical Director for Dementia) which explains the audit in more detail. It also details the arrangements whereby practices can opt out of the process if they so wish. No further action is required if the practice is happy for their anonymised data to be transmitted to the Information Centre.

 

Please direct any specific enquiries about this data extract to Julie's team at the IC or via email to [log in to unmask]

 

Note: You will need Adobe Reader to open the file (available free from www.adobe.com).

Follow-up: Update regarding the Dementia Audit from Dr John Parry, TPP Clinical Director.

 

Following concerns expressed by users the deadline for opting out of the Dementia Audit has been extended. The new deadline will be published as soon as this information is available.

 

The web link in the original letter has produced some confusion around whether patient identifiable information is included. The Information Centre has created a FAQ web link for this audit at:

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/national-clinical-audit-support-programme-ncasp/the-national-dementia-and-antipsychotic-prescribing-audit/frequently-asked-questions

 

The audit being undertaken is the phase 1 analysis which provides NO patient identifiable information at all. The information is to be aggregated and will be 'non disclosive'.

 

A further communication from Professor Alistair Burns (National Clinical Lead for Dementia) will follow shortly.

Posted Wed 20 Apr 2011 10:49, Expires Wed 27 Apr 2011”

 

 

 

This had an attached letter from the National Clinical Director for Dementia Prof. Alistair Burns, in which there is this link to the Audits page at the Information Centre site…

 

http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/national-clinical-audit-support-programme-ncasp/the-national-dementia-and-antipsychotic-prescribing-audit

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mary Hawking
Sent: 20 April 2011 22:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit.

 

It sounds as though the messages are a very mixed bag: is there any system for drawing attention to important items such as this?

 

Who are "they" in this context? TPP or someone else enabled by TPP?

 

Did the message give any background on the "National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit" or who was running this audit? (we did this as part of Med 6 last year: 2 patients, both prescibed by community psychogeriatrics for genuine psychoctic problems)

Is this an opt-in or an opt-out system for GP practices?

 

If individual practices are allowed to opt out, has this been made clear to the whole of the GP and any other organisations using TPP?

 

Does this audit require ethical approval and if so, has it been obtained?

 

I think my unease about this is that this implies - without further details could well be wrong - that a system supplier is acting as a Data Controller, whereas legally I believe the Data Controller is the GP practice and the same applies in hosted and enterprise systems: system suppliers are Data Processors - and the recent Zurich case should be a warning about the consequences if your Data Processor loses even a data stick: the Data Controller remains liable.

 

There is also the question of Data Controllers in Common: is this audit limited to the GP components of the TPP record database?

 

 

Mary Hawking

 

 

From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Trefor Roscoe
Sent: 20 April 2011 15:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit.

TPP sends out a few messages a day to users about things such as software updates, menu bar changes, extra features and general company news.

Amongst these this week one of my colleagues spotted an item about the National Dementia and Antipsychotic Prescribing Audit.

Apparently they are going to search the whole TPP GP database and extract anonymised information about patients with a diagnosis of dementia and those with a current or recent prescription of an antipsychotic.

 

Some other TPP users have worried about how anonymised it will be and how complete the data, especially considering individual practices can opt out.

 

I am sure one of the outcomes will be a GP bashing exercise accusing us of causing thousands of strokes in the elderly.

 

Thoughts team?

 

Trefor