Council Meeting
26 April 2022
Present
Dr Arjun Dhillon (Chair), Dr Chris Bunch (Vice-Chair), Carey Bloomer, Prof Martin Crook, Dr George Fernie, Christopher Fincken, Darren Lloyd, Mr Adrian Marchbank, Allison Newell, Dr Matt Noble, David Riley, Col Rob Russell.
Guests
Matt Neligan, Phil Walker, Dawn Monaghan, Chris Branson, Terunnum Shakeel, Ruth Hudson, Helen Duckworth, Dr Alan Fletcher.
Observers
Lesley Iganni, Jonathan Osborn, Dr Neil Bhatia, Darren Lloyd, Farrukh Shah, Ryan Avison, Karen Swift.
Apologies
Dr Faouzi Alam, Gill Bennett, Helen Dyer, Andrew Harvey, Rhidian Hurle, Dr Julian Marks Prof. Robert McClelland, Dr Cait Taylor, Brig Duncan Wilson.
Declarations of interest
Can be found on register of interests. Carey Bloomer declared that she has joined BLS Stay Compliant and the register will be updated accordingly. No other new interests were declared.
Action log
The action log was reviewed. One action remains open with an update provided on progress. All other actions were agreed as having been completed prior to this meeting.
Chair and Vice Chair’s report
The Chairman and Vice Chair updated Council on recent activities and the key meetings they have attended including:
Council paid tribute to Ifeoma (Magi) Nwolie who very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Many of Council met Magi when she came to Council in December 2021 to discuss the NHS National Disease Registration Service. Magi also provided secretariat support to the UK Council of Caldicott Guardians for many years. She strongly believed in the value of upholding the 8 Caldicott Principles. The UK Caldicott Guardian Council were grateful for all the efforts Magi made and she will be very much missed by all.
Regular meetings with Dr Nicola Byrne (National Data Guardian) set up to discuss priorities and assess how the UKCGC can support the NDG and her priorities.
Attended the National Data Guardian Panel meetings in March and April.
UKCGC Breakfast clubs and workshops continue to be arranged for the year with the support of Council and the Secretariat.
E-learning programme ‘The Role of the Caldicott Guardian’ has been launched the programme offers three, audience specific modules the chair encouraged members to promote the programme in their networks.
The National Data Guardian appeared in front of the Science and Technology Committee on 20 April 2022 to provide oral evidence on their inquiry ‘The right to privacy: digital data’.
Requests for advice to Council
Council discussed recent requests for advice. The Chairman noted that requests were mostly routine questions regarding the requirement to have a Caldicott Guardian and which organisations the National Data Guardian’s guidance on Caldicott Guardians applies to. Sharing information with Urgent Community Response (UCR) teams was also discussed.
Full details of requests for advice can be provided upon request and are often also available to view as discussion topics on the Digital Health Caldicott Guardian forum.
Domestic Abuse Forum
Christopher Fincken attended the Inter-Collegiate and Agency Domestic Violence Abuse forum on 16 March 2022. This group is a policy forum which brings together the expertise and knowledge of national health and social care bodies, medical royal colleges and the domestic abuse sector. The main topic of discussion during the meeting was the move for patients to be given online access to their future, or prospective, full general practice health record and how this could be a safety issue for some vulnerable patients.
Council acknowledged this is a complex area and that GP’s will need time and training on recognising what’s right to include in records and how to effectively redact sensitive information. Council will ask the British Medical Association (BMA) and The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) what guidance and training they are currently providing and signpost members to that.
Integrated Care Systems (ICS)
Matt Neligan (Director of System Transformation) and Dawn Monaghan (Director of IG Policy, Ethics and Head of Profession) from NHS England & Improvement and Helen Duckworth from the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care System presented the journey toward integrated care systems. They discussed the ICS Implementation programme, the uses of data in ICSs, and the opportunities and challenges of information sharing.
Council was most interested to understand how the National and Regional activities could be aligned and how they will will be managed. In particular, what data security arrangements had been considered and how they could create a trusted relationship with the public through active patient and public participation within ICS’s.
Council thanked the team for attending to provide an overview of the ICS’s and outlined its eagerness to provide ongoing support to the programme.
National Medical Examiner new system
Dr Alan Fletcher (National Medical Examiner) attended Council to talk about the new medical examiner system that is being rolled-out across England and Wales to provide greater scrutiny of deaths. Council was particularly interested in the new system and relevant guidance and agreed that from a Caldicott perspective it is clearly the right thing to do as there is a duty of care to the deceased and S251 approval in place.
Council thanked Dr Fletcher for taking the time to attend Council and for providing a useful and informative presentation.
Other Business
Council discussed holding a face to face Council meeting in London in October 2022. There was some support for this plan and the chair agreed it would be a hybrid meeting so people could also attend virtually too.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday 22 June 2022.