This is a reminder that all contractors must submit their annual contract monitoring documentation and complete their Information Governance assurances.   

The deadline for both of these for 2013/14 is 
31 March 2014.

Further detail about both can be found below.

CONTRACT MONITORING

Every Pharmacy needs to submit the following Documentation to the area team.

• Action Plan – resulting from CPAF Pharmoutcomes assessment
• 2013/14 Pharmacy based Audit
• 2013/14 Patient Satisfaction Survey
• 2013/14 Annual Complaints Report
• Patient Leaflet

In Northumberland, Cumbria, Tyne & Wear areas these need to be sent to Linda Bosher whose details are below.  Ideally they would prefer the documentation to be emailed to them.  Should you have any queries please contact Linda direct.

Linda Bosher
Assistant Primary Care Commissioning Support
County Durham, Darlington & Tees Area Team
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Area Team
NHS England
Rapier House
Colima Avenue
Sunderland Enterprise Park
Sunderland
SR5 3XB
 
Direct Dial:       0191 502 6572
Switch Board:  0191 502 6542
Fax:                  01325 553096
 Email:               linda.bosher@nhs.net


INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

All NHS Providers, including community pharmacies, need to provide information governance assurances to the NHS on an  annual basis. This is done via the completion of the online information governance toolkit (Version 11).

Further information on the information governance requirements for this year can be found on the PSNC Website.  This can be accessed by clicking HERE.

All NHS Providers, including community pharmacies, need to provide information governance assurances to the NHS on an  annual basis. This is done via the completion of the online information governance toolkit (Version 11).
 
The deadline for submission of the 2013/14 return is 
31 March 2014.
 
Further information on the information governance requirements for this year can be found on the PSNC Webiste.  This can be accessed by clicking HERE.

All NHS providers, including community pharmacies need to provide information governance assurances to the NHS on an annual basis. These assurances are provided through completion of an online assessment tool, the NHS Information Governance Toolkit (IGT). Requirements for IG change annually, and Version 11 of the toolkit has now been released.

Based on user feedback, some changes have been made to the IGT functionality and some requirement guidance materials have had minor improvements to add clarity or to include up to date information. As there are no significant changes to the sixteen IG requirements for community pharmacy for 2013/14,  there is no additional impact or burden on the service in terms of conformance. Requirement 319 cannot yet be completed as PSNC and NHS England are still in discussion on business continuity planning. Pharmacies are expected to attain Level 2 against each of the pharmacy IG requirements and the deadline for submitting this year’s return is 31st March 2014.

Improvements made to the functionality of the IG Toolkit to improve usability and user experience are outlined below:

• Domain name changes

These reflect the transition of the IGT product to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), which now has the responsibility for the url and improved hosting arrangements.  The same team is in place to continue maintaining the IGT website and content development and further work will be required over the course of 2013 to 2014 to finish updating  branding, content and reference materials.

• Disclaimer for model/exemplar materials

A disclaimer statement displayed under the Knowledgebase section, within the individual requirement pages and the Knowledge Base search tool section will read:-

‘These exemplar materials have been provided over several years by various organisations or drafted by NHS colleagues. They are intended as general information which may assist.  However, the inclusion of this material should not be interpreted as an endorsement or approval’.

• External IG Delivery Team Review Section

An area for the External IG Delivery Team to keep a record of notes or actions when reviewing IGT assessments in support of various will only be visible to IGT users, whose IGT assessment has been reviewed by a member of the External IG Delivery Team, when they are logged in, and will not visible to the public even after publication of the assessment.

• Enhancement of improvement planning and evidence management facilities

Users wanted a more dynamic improvement plan tool and facility to manage their evidence more efficiently from a single location on the IGT. One consolidated report/plan is now available and is displayed in different formats to allow for more active online improvement planning, managing evidence and an option for offline working if necessary.  User guides on the new/enhanced improvement planning and evidence management tools are available from the ‘Help section of the IGT.

• IG Incident Reporting Tool

This has been developed to facilitate and enhance existing processes in relation to IG Serious Incidents Requiring Investigation (SIRI), and to ensure that DH is informed when necessary.

IGT Version 11 Change Release Note is available here.