News and presentations from today's conference focussing on improving communication and information sharing in emergency situations whilst ensuring patient confidentiality.
Chaired by Christopher Fincken Former Chair
UK Caldicott Guardian Council
Improving information sharing whilst ensuring patient confidentiality in emergencies
Victor Inyang Medical Director
East Anglian Air Ambulance
• what information and Caldicott issues are common and what are the challenges? Examples in practice
• case studies and information sharing around Covid-19
• caldicott decision making: improving practice in emergency situations
Victor shared examples of information governance and confidentiality issues in the air ambulance service, these included during the pandemic how you share information with relatives and how to know it's the appropriate relative, and with press interest whenever there is aircraft activity. He said adrenaline reduces bandwidth and decision making around information governance is not easy when attending an incident, so these are referred on to the information governance teams.
Victor said it is important to refer back to the Caldicott Principles when dealing with press, press training and interview techniques is recommended particulary if you work in a high interest area. In summary Victor gave the following good practice tips that work well for them in emergency care:
- Embed Caldicott Guardian activity within information governance strategy
- Raise awareness of the role of the Caldicott Guardian
- Increase accessibility to the Caldicott Guardian
- Ensure the role becomes "business as usual"
- Develop a decision making and recording tool
- mitigation to cover leave/absence with training of other clinicians and access to decision support tools
- Mandatory IG training
Biography 0.01 MBDOCXfile
Presentation slides 2.49 MBPPTXfile
EXTENDED SESSION: Legal Issues and Advice
Sion Davies Senior Associate
Hill Dickinson LLP
• information sharing and legal issues
• when to share and when not to share with the police from a legal perspective
• information sharing when an incident has occurred
• consent in emergency situations
• making sustainable disclosure decisions and sharing information responsibly and legitimately
• key legal developments including the implications of the GDPR