GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19) (GDPPR)
Data Provision Notice to require the submission of data from general practices in support of vital planning and research for COVID-19 purposes.
Overview
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has directed NHS England to collect, process and analyse data in connection with COVID-19 to support the Secretary of State’s response to COVID-19 and to support various COVID-19 purposes set out in the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020. This enables NHS England to collect and analyse the data and link it, for COVID-19 purposes, with other data held by NHS England.
The purpose of the data collection is also to respond to the intense demand for general practice data to be shared in support of vital planning and research for COVID-19 purposes.
NHS Digital (now NHS England) was requested by the joint co-chairs of the Joint GP IT Committee (JGPITC), which comprises membership from the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), to provide a tactical solution during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic to meet this demand and to relieve the growing burden and responsibility on general practices. On 15 April 2020 the BMA and RCGP therefore gave their support via JGPITC to NHS Digital’s proposal to use the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) to deliver a data collection from general practices, at scale and at pace, as a tactical solution to support the COVID-19 response in the pandemic emergency period.
It is a requirement of the JGPITC that all requests by organisations to access and use this data will need to be made to the NHS England Data Access Request Service (DARS).
NHS England will consult with representatives of the BMA and the RCGP on all requests for access to the data. An outline of the process (agreed with the BMA and the RCGP) is published on the NHS England website. Requests by organisations to access record level data from this collection will also be subject to Advisory Group for Data (AGD) and Patient Advisory Group (PAG) consideration. Data applicants will need to demonstrate they have a lawful basis to access the data for COVID-19 purposes.
Scope of the collection
This Notice is service on:
- all general practices in England
Legal basis for provision of data
Period of the collection
The data was first collected in May 2020. The initial collection was a snapshot in time extract. The data was then extracted on a fortnightly basis until March 2024 when it changed to a monthly extract. This means that all activity which happens in the preceding month is now collected every month rather than every fortnight.
The collection is anticipated to continue until the expiry of the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020. The frequency of the data collection may change in response to demand.
Updates
12 July 2024
Version 2.0 of this Notice issued to reflect the change in frequency of collection from fortnightly to monthly, to reflect the updated governance process for external organisations requesting access to GDPPR and legal and organisational changes which came into effect on 1 October 2021, 1 July 2022 and 1 February 2023.
Last edited: 21 August 2024 9:46 am