Data Collection and Use
Data collection is an important part of driving service improvement and quality of care throughout the National Health Service. The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) defines patient identifiable information as a data set which may include some or all of the following: an image of the patient, the patient’s name, address, full post code or date of birth. The MSN for Neurosurgery uses such data to enable the analysis and reporting of Neurosurgical information in Scotland.
All healthcare professionals and administration staff who are employed by NHS Health Boards across Scotland, including the staff at the MSN for Neurosurgery; are trained to handle sensitive patient data and to understand the importance of patient confidentiality. All measures are taken to preserve the security of data held by the MSN for Neurosurgery, which includes all staff adhering to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.
It is not always possible to inform patients/parents of data collection for healthcare purposes at the start of their treatment however there are circumstances where information can be collected and used for health and research purposes (e.g. audit) without the explicit consent from patients / parents. NHS Scotland Caldicott Guardians: Principles into Practice (Part 5) states:
‘In the context of healthcare there is a specific medical purposes condition under Schedule 3 of the Data Protection Act which means that in most cases, where the processing of health information relates to medical and care purposes, explicit patient consent does not have to be obtained.’
When the work of the MSN for Neurosurgery is to investigate and report on Neurosurgical services to enable assessment of care provision (e.g. treatment statistics, service provision), patient confidentiality is not compromised where data protection principles are adhered to (a requirement for all MSN for Neurosurgery staff). When the MSN for Neurosurgery is supporting Neurosurgical research, all participants will be asked to give informed consent prior to entering into the study.