Enter the CCG – an open letter to the DH
Dr John Lockley uses his regular column to pen an open letter to the Department of Health, calling for a fundamental re-think of the increasingly vexed rules about the use of personal confidential data in the NHS.
CCIO Network

Five things to watch in primary care, 2014
Rebecca Todd asks primary care IT experts to identify the key issues for 2014; and finds GPSoC2, patient access, care.data, information governance and commissioning data at the top of their lists.
Feature

HSCIC sets up Caldicott monitoring group
The Health and Social Care Information Centre is establishing a Caldicott Implementation Monitoring Group to begin work in 2014.
News

Commissioners get new PCD powers
Commissioners have been given new powers to process ‘necessary’ patient confidential data for invoice validation, following a decision by health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
News

Another year of PCD for commissioners
NHS England has submitted three Section 251 exemption requests to allow some patient confidential data to continue to flow to commissioners for another year.
News

Ashes to ASHs
The Department of Health’s response to Caldicott2 confirms that patient confidential data cannot be used for commissioning. EHI news editor Rebecca Todd explores the implications.
Feature

Govt holds Caldicott line on PCD
The government has declined to back down over the use of patient confidential data for comissioning, despite an outcry from clinical commissioning groups and companies working with them.
News

‘Safe haven’ accreditation held up
The creation of ‘accredited safe havens’ to allow commissioners to process some patient confidential data is being held up by the wait for the government’s response to Caldicott2.
News

Enter the CCG
Dr John Lockley’s attempts to make effective use of data for clinical commissioning are being thwarted by the Section 251 debacle.
Feature

CCGs cannot fulfil duties without PCD
Clinical commissioners have written to NHS England saying they cannot carry out their statutory duties because of issues around processing patient confidential data.
News