Guidance On Patient Record Confidentiality, UK

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 27 Oct 2009 - 8:00 PDT

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A toolkit to help community pharmacies meet their legal and professional requirements to ensure the confidentiality and security of patient data has been developed collaboratively by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), the Department of Health and NHS Connecting for Health.

Under the Data Protection Act pharmacies must register with the Information Commissioner's Office as data controllers, handle information fairly and lawfully and ensure there are adequate technical and procedural security measures in place to safeguard the information they hold.

What is more, pharmacies have a contractual requirement to make sure appropriate arrangements have been made to comply with the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice and individually community pharmacists have a professional requirement to comply with the RPSGB professional standards which govern patient information.

There are 18 Information Governance (IG) requirements that pharmacists will be expected to comply with and the new toolkit will include template policies, standard operating procedures and patient information material. It is available on-line at; http://www.igt.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/ and on the PSNC and RPSGB websites.

English Pharmacy Board Vice- Chairman and community pharmacist, Richard Daniszewski said; "This toolkit is really important for community pharmacists. We are conscious of our responsibilities in ensuring safety of patient data and welcome the clear guidelines offered."

RPSGB IT Pharmacist Stephen Goundrey-Smith says; "To meet the NHS Operating Framework, each community pharmacy will need to provide appropriate assurances to their PCT with regards to the set of IG requirements.

"It will also be necessary," said Stephen, "for pharmacies to undertake an online baseline assessment by 31st March 2010 against the pharmacy requirements in the IG Toolkit and by the end of 31st March 2011 community pharmacists will be expected to attain Level 2 against the pharmacy set of IG requirements. This toolkit is therefore not only timely but also vital if pharmacists are to comply with that data protection laws and ensure that their customers' information is appropriately protected."

Further information is available from the RPSGB and from Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

Source
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain