Confidentiality announcement imminent

Over the coming weeks two high-level announcements are due from the central National Programme office, in addition to the details of which supplier has won which deal.

• Confidentiality

  A major patient consultation on confidentiality has been carried out over the summer. The results will be made public within the next month.

  Further reading

  • NHS: The Real Story

  The finer details of data security and confidentiality are notably missing from the technical specifications of the Integrated Care Records Service.

  Security expert and London School of Economics research fellow Peter Sommer told the Computing-led NHS Monitoring Group: 'One can't underestimate the huge change of moving away from locally held records, with local responsibility for accuracy and confidentiality, to a centralised model.

  'All the technical specification does is include boilerplate paragraphs about how systems will have to comply with data protection legislation and ISO 17799, without describing how.

  'We need a global statement of what the aims are.'

  Two issues need clarification, says Sommer.

  'One is tracking inaccurate data input - we need to be able to have each item of data traced very quickly back to source so if there is a problem you can trace the root.

  'The second is confidentiality - it doesn't matter what technical infrastructure you put in, ultimately it will depend on individuals under high pressure understanding what to do and following the procedures.'

• High-level involvement of clinicians

  Professor Peter Hutton, president of the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, has been appointed to spend two days per week working on the National Programme. Much of his efforts are currently focussing on protocols around the entry, accuracy and access to information. More specific details about Hutton's role are expected over the coming month.