Patient data shared in fight against virus
INDIVIDUAL patient data is being collected and shared by Greater Manchester’s authorities as part of the region’s response to COVID-19.
Changes have deliberately been made to Control of Patient Information regulations in order to allow the medical information of the city-region’s 2.8 million citizens to be safely shared between ‘different sectors of Greater Manchester.’
This includes doctors, nurses and medical practitioners, but anonymous patient data can also be accessed by researchers at the area’s four universities and its ten borough councils for planning purposes.
Authorities accelerated the implementation of the Greater Manchester Care Record scheme for all patients ‘to provide front-line professionals with vital information in the fight against COVID-19.’ The data sharing allows
GPs, doctors, nurses and other health practitioners to see medical records, care plans, medications and test results.
Authorities have assured individual patient data is being kept safe following national guidelines and Greater Manchester determined criteria.
Those behind the scheme say it has enabled rapid progress in a matter of weeks rather than months for the cityregion’s pandemic response.
Trafford council’s outbreak control plan shows how data is being shared to a deliberately wider audience across Greater Manchester through a system called Graphnet.
The official council document said: “Throughout Greater Manchester, details about individual patients will be accessible through the Graphnet system. This will include COVID-19 related data to be able to build a picture of local trends.”
The document states that ‘changes have been made’ to the Control of
Patient Information regulations in order to allow ‘information to be shared more widely between different sectors in Greater Manchester.’
A spokesperson for Graphnet said shared record systems like theirs rely on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Trafford’s document states Graphnet is being paired with another software in their borough to allow data to be accessed while keeping patients anonymous.
Dr Kiran Patel, GP and chair of the secondary uses scrutiny group for the scheme, said: “As well as informing direct care, the GM Care Record will help the NHS to understand more about how COVID-19 is affecting the health and wellbeing of local communities and what services need to be in place, as well as informing the world leading research being conducted by our four GM universities.”
Shared record systems like GM Care Record are used across the country to provide health and care information.