Public face of Well being and Social Care Information Centre to depart

Clinicians are concerned that the departure of Mark Davies leaves a ‘clinical hole’ in the organisation. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The public face of the new arm’s-length entire body responsible for the healthcare data of the whole English patient population will leave in March, it has emerged, soon after giving a series of higher-profile media interviews.

The Wellness and Social Care Info Centre (HSCIC) confirmed that Mark Davies, a former GP and its public assurance director, would depart in March and not be replaced. His position on the board has been manufactured redundant.

By Might, the healthcare data from GP surgeries – which includes mental well being situations and conditions such as cancer, as well as smoking and drinking routines – of absolutely everyone who has not opted out will be uploaded to the repository managed by the centre. This will then be linked to hospital and social care records.

Davies advised the Guardian final month the centre could not block a request from “a government division, university researcher, pharmaceutical firm or insurance coverage company” for the release of info, which would be scrubbed of some personalized identifiers but not ample to make the data totally anonymous.

He also confirmed there was a “small threat” specified sufferers could be “re-recognized” simply because insurers, pharmaceutical groups and other overall health sector businesses had their very own medical information that could be matched against the “pseudonymised” records.

Clinicians are concerned that the departure of Davies leaves a “clinical hole” in the organisation. Joe McDonald, chair of the Chief Clinical Data Officers Leaders Network and a advisor psychiatrist in the NHS, informed Ehealth Insider that it was an “odd determination” by the HSCIC to not have a clinician on the board.

“Considerably of the failure of the national programme for IT was a lack of senior clinical input and [Davies"] departure clearly leaves a clinical hole on the board,” he explained.

Davis had, it was broadly rumoured, clashed with the centre’s new chair Kingsley Manning, who brought a wealth of commercial knowledge in healthcare. Davies also chaired the Data Access Advisory Group (DAAG), an independent group hosted by the centre, which considers applications for sensitive data.

The Guardian found that final summer season Davies controversially waved by means of an application from the Cabinet Workplace to permit the government to examine the “sensitive” health care records of person youngsters who get component in the prime minister’s pet volunteering task, the Nationwide Citizen’s Services.

The proposal envisaged officials accessing data more than a amount of many years to assess whether the scheme conferred any advantages.

The selection was taken without a vote of the DAAG, which campaigners explained raised questions more than whether there was powerful scrutiny of information sharing requests by government – particularly when there was a chance of re-identification involving younger people.

Officials stated the information would be for a “long-phrase study” examining whether there have been as nevertheless uncalculated well being rewards – or detriments – to participants from the few weeks on the scheme. Final 12 months the government said the services developed £2.80 in positive aspects for each and every £1 invested.

Specialists said it was unlikely that the scheme would make any measurable effect. Andrew Mycock of Huddersfield University, who has studied the energetic citizenship and democratic participation of youthful individuals in the United kingdom, said it was “extremely unlikely that a brief programme such as National Citizen Support is, on its personal, going to have sustained, lifelong impacts on youthful people’s behaviour”.

The HSCIC defended Davies, saying that “there is a provision for the chair to consider an out-of-committee selection in the event that permission is essential swiftly and the situation is simple. This is what happened right here on 14 June 2013. This was not formally mentioned until finally a meeting on 20 January 2014 and it will appear in the minutes that are due to be published shortly.”

A spokesperson stated: “Dr Mark Davies will be leaving HSCIC at the finish of March. We are extremely grateful not only for Mark’s contribution above a number of many years, but in specific for agreeing to keep with the organisation in the course of the transition from the NHS Info Centre and in supporting the formation of the HSCIC.

“The contribution of care pros to all facets of our perform is essential and we currently make use of a wide assortment of medical professionals and nurses throughout the organisation. We are now looking to strengthen that contribution by appointing a panel of care professionals which includes a senior social care professional, to support the board and the senior management staff, as properly as provide specialist leadership within the HSCIC.

“We will be recruiting to these posts over the up coming number of months and are keen to make sure these appointments will consist of a assortment of clinical pros as properly as physicians.”

Public face of Well being and Social Care Information Centre to depart