Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department issues on the (a) adoption by and (b) use in the NHS of System One computer software.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on the procurement, adoption, and use of SystmOne are made locally as part of standard procurement procedures, which adhere to compliant procurement guidelines. No additional guidance has been provided by the Department on the adoption or usage of SystmOne in the National Health Service.
Asked by: Baroness Manzoor (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that patient records and personal data are only accessible to those who need to view them, and to ensure connections between software systems in health facilities include suitable control measures for this risk.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National IT systems must ensure that users can be identified correctly, and are given appropriate access. This is achieved using identity verification capabilities, including creating a national digital identity for each authorised user.
Each local National Health Service organisation which requires access to the national IT systems is required to set up its own local Registration Authority (RA) which consists of people and processes who are trained to create identities and grant access for their staff to the national IT systems. NHS England has published the RA Policy requirements with which every local NHS organisation that has an RA must comply. This reflects current best practice for identity and access management as informed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance.
The RA Policy also allows non-NHS health and care organisations providing direct care to run their own RA service. RA hosting is subject to meeting requirements and assessment criteria, which are soon to be published.
The RA process includes the use of RA codes, assigned to professional users’ smartcards to give them access to the correct information within national IT systems.
The RA codes which are assigned for a specific user will allow that user to create and process referrals appropriately depending on their job role.
Local organisations which have an RA function are required to have an RA audit policy and conduct annual audits on NHS Smartcard usage as part of their RA governance. RA Managers (those responsible for administering the RA function within an organisation) must implement a process to run the RA reports on a regular basis.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS plans to expand the use of System One computer software.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The procurement of electronic patient record systems is conducted at an integrated care board or trust level, following specific procurement criteria. Consequently, decisions regarding software adoption and expansion will be made by National Health Service trusts. All procurement activity for patient record systems is conducted in compliance with regulations, which means that the outcome of future procurements cannot be known at this point.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent staff have worked on (a) developing and (b) maintaining the My Planned Care platform since 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Planned Care was developed in 2021 and launched in February 2022. It is hosted by an NHS Commissioning Support Unit of behalf of NHS England.
My Planned Care waiting times are updated weekly, primarily through automated data management systems with minimal human resources. NHS England maintain the content as updated by each provider, which is part of a wider programme of work. It is estimated that between the waiting time weekly updates and the content maintenance, the resources utilised are less than 0.1 full-time equivalent per week.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of availability of follow up MRI scans for women who have undergone mastectomies to tackle lobular breast cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. The remainder of the funding will increase capacity for imaging, including MRI scans, endoscopy as well as lung and mammography screening, and improve digital diagnostics.
Growth in the MRI asset base and increased use of MRI acceleration software is creating additional capacity for approximately 572,000 MRI examinations per annum within the NHS in England.
The Department and NHS England have taken steps to improve the treatment of invasive lobular breast cancer (ILBC) but are aware that more needs to be done. In September 2022, the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre announced funding from NHS England and the Welsh Government of £5.4 million to support delivery of six new national cancer audits. Two of these focus on breast cancer, one on primary and one on metastatic, and include ILBC.
Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supports breast cancer research funded by research partners in the charity and public sectors. Over the last five years, the NIHR Clinical Research Network has supported 10 ILBC-related studies.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which sites have piloted Palantir software.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s pilot programmes of Palantir’s Foundry software include the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme (IECCPP) and the Optimised Patient Tracking and Intelligent Choices Application (OPTICA) pilot.
The pilots have demonstrated the potential benefits of a Federated Data Platform, which will be a vital upgrade for the National Health Service, allowing it to make better use of its data to improve outcomes for patients, including reducing waits and discharging people quicker.
The following table shows the 42 trusts who are actively participating in one or both pilot programmes:
Trust | IECCP | OPTICA |
Barts Health NHS Trust | X |
|
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust | X |
|
East Suffolk and North East Essex NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
East Essex Healthcare NHS Trust | X |
|
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust |
| X |
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | X | X |
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust | X |
|
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust |
| X |
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust | X | X |
Medway NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust | X |
|
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust | X |
|
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | X |
|
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number and proportion of GP practices that enable patients to (a) see their medical records, (b) book appointments and (c) order repeat prescriptions through the NHS app.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS App functionality is available for: prospective record access across 5,163 practices, representing 82% of all practices, up from 0.2% in December 2022 with 15 early adopter sites; appointment booking in 5,892 practices, representing 93% of all practices; and repeat prescription ordering across 6,206 practices, representing 98% of all practices.
Practices can choose how to use this functionality to offer services to their patients. A roadmap for future development across the NHS App is published quarterly on the NHS England website.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of repeat prescriptions were ordered through the NHS app in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently over 33.6 million sign-ups on the NHS App, enabling users to access a range of services within the National Health Service, such as booking and managing general practice (GP) and hospital appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and viewing their prospective GP health record.
We estimate that the NHS App share of electronic repeat prescriptions only is 10.5%, up from approximately 7% in December 2022. The following table shows the total number of repeat prescriptions ordered via the NHS App in each of the last 12 months:
Date | Repeat Prescription Orders via NHS App |
December 2022 | 2.2 million |
January 2023 | 2.4 million |
February 2023 | 2.2 million |
March 2023 | 2.5 million |
April 2023 | 2.4 million |
May 2023 | 2.7 million |
June 2023 | 2.7 million |
July 2023 | 2.8 million |
August 2023 | 2.9 million |
September 2023 | 2.8 million |
October 2023 | 3.1 million |
November 2023 | 3.2 million |
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of being pressured into showing confidential medical records on the NHS App to third parties faced by (1) patients requesting covert contraception forbidden in their home or relationship, (2) patients who are suffering domestic abuse, and (3) other vulnerable groups including the elderly.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants people to be able to have access to their own records if they choose to do so. There is widespread international consensus about the benefits to patients and the effectiveness of the health system in providing digital on-demand access to personal health information.
For most, online record access is beneficial, but for a minority, having access could cause harm or distress. NHS England is taking an active approach to ensuring safe and secure patient record access, seeking to identify and provide additional protections to vulnerable people if they request access to their medical records online.
NHS England has engaged extensively with at-risk groups, professional bodies, patient groups, charities and safeguarding leads to support general practice and patients in preparing for this change safely and effectively. Communication packs have been provided to over 50 charities that support at-risk individuals. NHS Digital has published guidance in an online-only format for organisations, Supporting victims and survivors of domestic or sexual abuse, to support people when accessing their personal health information online.
Before viewing their record in the NHS App, users are advised what to do if they are being pressured to share their information. Patients can prevent access by disabling their National Health Service login with a simple online process or can ask their general practitioner (GP) for the details of specific consultations or treatment decisions to be redacted. When an individual first requests access, they cannot see information already recorded; they will only be able to access information recorded from that point onwards.
The expert safeguarding group has identified theoretical risks, which have fed into NHS England’s patient and GP communications packs and advice, messaging on the NHS App and NHS.uk and improvements made by GP IT system suppliers.
More than 23 million patients have viewed their records over nine million times, with no significant incidents relating to personal safety or security reported. Lower-level incidents, such as people finding out their diagnosis before being told by a clinician, have been reported, and some issues have been investigated and classed as low-risk and/or resolved.
NHS England continues to monitor this and would take action if an issue was identified or raised.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration has been given to making it simpler to switch off access to patient health records through the NHS app, particularly for vulnerable groups.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants people to be able to have access to their own records if they choose to do so. There is widespread international consensus about the benefits to patients and the effectiveness of the health system in providing digital on-demand access to personal health information.
For most, online record access is beneficial, but for a minority, having access could cause harm or distress. NHS England is taking an active approach to ensuring safe and secure patient record access, seeking to identify and provide additional protections to vulnerable people if they request access to their medical records online.
NHS England has engaged extensively with at-risk groups, professional bodies, patient groups, charities and safeguarding leads to support general practice and patients in preparing for this change safely and effectively. Communication packs have been provided to over 50 charities that support at-risk individuals. NHS Digital has published guidance in an online-only format for organisations, Supporting victims and survivors of domestic or sexual abuse, to support people when accessing their personal health information online.
Before viewing their record in the NHS App, users are advised what to do if they are being pressured to share their information. Patients can prevent access by disabling their National Health Service login with a simple online process or can ask their general practitioner (GP) for the details of specific consultations or treatment decisions to be redacted. When an individual first requests access, they cannot see information already recorded; they will only be able to access information recorded from that point onwards.
The expert safeguarding group has identified theoretical risks, which have fed into NHS England’s patient and GP communications packs and advice, messaging on the NHS App and NHS.uk and improvements made by GP IT system suppliers.
More than 23 million patients have viewed their records over nine million times, with no significant incidents relating to personal safety or security reported. Lower-level incidents, such as people finding out their diagnosis before being told by a clinician, have been reported, and some issues have been investigated and classed as low-risk and/or resolved.
NHS England continues to monitor this and would take action if an issue was identified or raised.