Confidentiality
Breast, Cervical and Bowel Cancer Screening Quality Assurance
The NHS Breast, Cervical and Bowel Cancer Screening Programmes cannot function without the transfer of patient identifiable data between and within organisations. Following the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act 2001, the NHS Screening Programmes had to obtain approval from the Patient Information Advisory Group (PIAG) to continue to transfer such data.
In 2008, the Health and Social Care Act was revised and the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care (NIGB) was established. This replaces PIAG as the statutory body responsible for Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 (formerly Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001).
Section 251 (formerly Section 60) continues to allow the NHS Cancer Screening Programme to access patient identifiable information without patients’ consent. This approval is conditional and subject to the programme’s implementation and sign-up to an Information Security Policy (Breast Screening Policy, Cervical Screening Policy) and a Confidentiality & Disclosure Policy (Breast Screening Policy, Cervical Screening Policy) which document the measures that will be taken by screening services to ensure the security of the patient identifiable data that they store and transfer. It is the responsibility of all staff involved in the programmes to comply with this policy as a minimum standard, together with any supporting policies local to the host Trust or Authority, procedures and other relevant legislation. All relevant cancer screening personnel are still required to sign up to these policies on an annual basis.
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