Rules for the release of data (June 2018)
Information request guidelines
To request data please complete an Information Request Form available on the SICSAG website www.sicsag.scot.nhs.uk and email to phs.sicsag@phs.scot. You are advised to speak to the Clinical Co-ordinator or Senior Information Analyst before requesting audit data.
The Clinical Co-ordinator must be provided with a copy of any written report or submission (prior to publication) where audit data has been used – this is to ensure appropriate interpretation of the data.
If a unit is identifiable, then the Lead Audit Consultant should also be shown the report prior to publication.
The source of data must be acknowledged in any presentation or publication.
Rules regarding the release of data
Lead Audit Consultants and Local Co-ordinators have unrestricted access to their own centre’s data.
Requests for regional or national named-hospital data must be sanctioned by each Lead Audit Consultant and the following people will be notified and copied into the information provided:
It is the responsibility of the Lead Audit Consultant to ensure the relevant parties in his/her hospital are kept informed.
National anonymised data will be released at the discretion of the Chairman of the audit.
Requests received for hospital data from applicants employed by the hospital or requests from hospital management or clinical effectiveness groups will be discussed with the Lead Audit Consultant and departmental Clinical Lead at the hospital in question and each will receive copies of any information provided.
Requests from Health Boards will be discussed with the Lead Audit Consultant for the audit.
Requests from the Scottish Government (including Parliamentary Questions) will be discussed with the Chairman or Vice Chairman (in the absence of the Chairman).
Requests from the media must be referred to the Chairman immediately – under no circumstances should any audit employee converse with media representatives.
Requests for patient identifiable data will be referred to the Chairman of the audit and the Caldicott Guardian at ISD.
National Reporting
All National Reporting must follow the PHI Publication Protocol, a requirement by PHI and the Scottish Government to standardise the manner in which PHI publishes and publicises all its releases. This ensures that any National report is previewed by relevant people and that all reports are published on relevant websites at the same time (second Tuesday of every month at 9.30am). A press release is sent at the same time with a brief summary of all reports that have been published that month.
Disclosure Control
PHI Disclosure control policies will be applied before the release of data.
Application for release of data form.
Recipients will complete and sign an ‘Application for Release of data form’ before expecting receipt of data, to indicate their legal responsibility to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health & Social Care (PBPP) Guidelines.