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General Practice Workforce Minimum Dataset (GP-wMDS)
Summary
Why and how we process your data in the General Practice Workforce Minimum Dataset (GP-wMDS) and your rights.
| Controller | NHS Digital (in relation to processing the personal data) and the Department of Health and Social Care (in relation to determining the purpose for processing the data through the issuing of a direction to NHS Digital) |
| How we use the information (processing activities) | The General Practice Workforce Minimum Dataset (GP-wMDS) collects information about staff members, GPs, Nurses, Other professionals providing patient care and administrative staff, providing services at General Practices in England. It includes information on working hours, details of job role, date of birth, National Insurance number, professional registration number (as applicable) and other personal demographics including ethnicity. This information is used to create a single central source of workforce information in England, drive improvements in data quality, monitor government targets and for publishing statistics, develop policy and inform workforce planning at both national and local level. The level of information collected is determined by the National Workforce Data Set specification DCB1067 and is published on NHS Digital's Information Standards Notices webpage, extracts are produced via the National Workforce Reporting System (NWRS). Dissemination of this information is available via NHS Digital's Data Access Request Service |
| Does this contain sensitive (special category) data such as health information? | Yes |
| Who are recipients of this data? |
Available via the Data Access Request Service (DARS). Recipients are recorded in the Register of Approved Data Releases for these disseminations |
| Is data transferred outside the UK? | Not for the purposes of processing it by NHS Digital. It may be transferred outside of the UK if this is approved by NHS Digital through the DARS process for any particular dissemination |
| How long the data is kept | 8 years minimum from the date the data is received |
| Our lawful basis for holding this data | Legal obligation |
| Your rights |
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| How can you withdraw your consent? |
Consent not the basis for processing |
| Is the data subject to decisions made solely by computers? (automated decision making) | No |
| Where does this data come from? | Providers of NHS funded General Practice Services in England |
| The legal basis for collecting this data | GDPR: |
Where NHS Digital uses this data
Workforce Minimum Data Set (wMDS)
In an NHS with an increasingly diverse range of providers, collecting comprehensive workforce information will become ever more difficult. In order to address this, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a duty on all organisations that deliver care funded by the NHS to provide data on their current workforce and to share their anticipated future workforce needs.