Data collection

Under section 259(1)(a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (the 2012 Act), a Data Provision Notice will be served in accordance with the procedure published as part of the NHS Digital duty under section 259(8) on the following persons;  General Practices in England, covering the four core GP system suppliers:

• TPP
• EMIS
• Cegedim Health Solutions
• Eva Health Technologies

Under section 259(5) of the 2012 Act, the organisation types specified in the above Scope must comply with the Form, Manner and Period of the data collection requirements.

In line with the national data opt-out operational policy guidance, national data opt-outs will not apply to the collection. However, Type 1 objections will be upheld in collecting this data from General Practices and therefore the data for those patients who have registered a Type 1 objection with their GP will not be collected. The Type 1 objection prevents an individual’s personal identifiable confidential information from being shared outside of their GP Practice except when it is being used for the purposes of their direct care.

The data will be collected from GPs using the GPES.

GPES will collect identifiable patient level data, which will be held by NHS Digital. A full list of the data items to be collected can be found at Annex A.

There will be one patient cohort:

Patients of any age with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and other psychoses up to and including the reporting period excluding patients recorded as ‘in remission’.

The purpose of this cohort is to understand the impact of the health checks and provide rapid and ongoing policy evaluation, it is important to understand physical health outcomes. Patient-level information is required to monitor these outcomes, for example to understand whether the delivery of a particular follow-up intervention affects individual health check indicator values over time.

Personal data is required to inform whether patients on the SMI register have received a health check, to identify recorded interventions and outcomes of these.

See Appendix A: Cohort for further details regarding the cohort.

A data minimisation exercise has been undertaken to ensure that the data taken on each individual is kept to a minimum.

There are six different groups of data items included in this data extraction. All these data items will be extracted for patients included in the cohort listed above.

1. Patient characteristics – demographic and key data items: This group includes the identifiers (for example: date of birth, NHS Number and postcode) and demographic information (for example: sex and ethnicity) for each patient, as well as the other key data items (for example: patient’s registered GP practice) that are required.
2. Patient characteristics – inequalities data items: NHSE and NHSI require these data items to estimate the reach to disadvantaged populations. These data items cover patients with SMI, and it is critical that NHSE and NHSI are able to monitor the access/provision of PHSMI services by these patients and attainment of optimal treatment.
3. SMI health check data items: Information relating to the relevant health checks and national screening checks as recommended by The National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) conducted on the patients included in this cohort will be extracted. (for example, the latest date and code recorded for Body Mass Index (BMI), height and weight, cholesterol test, glucose tests as specified in the data specification document).
4. Advice, signposting, information, interventions, referral data items, prescribed medication: Required so that NHSE and NHSI can estimate the following:
   • whether or not a patient received the appropriate advice, signposting, information, intervention, and referrals based on NICE guidance
   • whether patients are prescribed appropriate pharmacological interventions
5. Outcome health check data items: The date and code of the latest health check for example, glucose test, BMI reading, height and weight recording, alcohol consumption (as specified in the data specification), preceding or on the date of the latest intervention is extracted. This is required so that NHSE and NHSI can estimate:
   • whether or not the appropriate advice, signposting, information, intervention and referrals led to a change (ideally a positive change) in the patient’s health
6. Declined data items: The date and code for patient’s decline to the relevant health checks, national screening programmes and interventions are extracted as specified in the data specification document. This is required so that NHSE and NHSI can estimate:
   • whether or not it was the patient’s choice not to accept the intervention, health check.

Data item timescales

The data set is structured as:

1. Patient demographics.
2. Health check as indicated by ‘latest reading in the 12 months up to and including the reporting period end date’.
3. Interventions – all instances in the 12 months up to and including the reporting period end date for example of referrals.
4. Outcomes - latest reading (for core health checks and the additional elements of the comprehensive physical health assessment) within the 12 months up to and including the latest intervention. This reading together with the health check reading will enable tracking of outcomes.

NHSE and NHSI require an initial full-year extract of data and thereafter an extract on a quarterly basis. The first extract is scheduled to take place the second half of the 2020-21 financial year and will cover the previous financial year of 2019-20.