IG

The NHS Operating Framework 2009/10 introduced a requirement that by the end of 2009/10, all NHS providers, including community pharmacies must be able to provide annual IG assurances to their commissioners regarding the management of personal information within the provider organisation. These assurances are to be evidenced by providers (each pharmacy premises) achieving, or having an agreed action plan in place to achieve in a reasonable timeframe, a minimum of Level 2 performance against key NHS information governance requirements published through the NHS Information Governance Toolkit, an online assessment.

Pharmacy Contractor IG Workbook

The workbook aims to provide guidance and support for pharmacies in meeting the NHS IG requirements, and completing the online IG Toolkit.

For each requirement, there is a summary of the NHS requirement, a list of action points, information about template resources that are available to support meeting the requirement and a list of the evidence that would allow a pharmacy to demonstrate to their PCT compliance with the requirement.

A hardcopy of the Pharmacy IG Workbook was posted to every pharmacy and PCT (Medicines Management Lead) in England in January 2010. It can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:

NHS Information Governance: Pharmacy Contractor IG Workbook (High Quality Print version/1.68MB)

NHS Information Governance: Pharmacy Contractor IG Workbook (Lower Quality Web version/554KB)

NHS Information Governance: Pharmacy Contractor IG Workbook ('Typewriter enabled' version/567KB) - this only works with newer versions of Adobe reader. Technical support on use of this product is not available from PSNC.

Additional copies are available on request (while stocks last) from info@psnc.org.uk.

Timescales for Action

By 31 March 2011: By 31 March 2011 community pharmacies will be expected to attain Level 2 against each of the pharmacy information governance requirements.

Note, these requirements apply to England only. Different arrangements apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Templates & Tools

Implementing the requirements by the 2011 deadline is expected to be burdensome, as it has been for the GP surgeries and NHS organisations that have recently been through this process. As pharmacies handle sensitive information about NHS patients, there was no possibility that pharmacies could be exempted from these requirements. The priority for PSNC has been to ensure that there are supporting resources available to make achieving compliance as efficient as possible and that funding properly reflects the costs of these changes.

Comprehensive guidance and tools have been developed to support meeting the requirements including template policies, standard operating procedures and patient information material. Click here to access them.

FAQs

Click here to access a range of FAQs.

Training

All staff working in pharmacies that have access to personal information about patients must undertake basic training on Information Governance. Click here for more information on the training options.

Funding

Agreement has been reached between the Department of Health and the PSNC on the funding for the community pharmacy contractual framework for 2009/10. A proportion of excess margin will be used in 2009/10 to fund one-off infrastructure investments, to sustain the effective delivery of community pharmacy services. This includes progressing the information governance requirements.

Queries

Support on using the online Information Governance Toolkit is available from a dedicated Connecting for Health Helpdesk: pharmacy.assurance@nhs.net or telephone 0113 394 6540.

DOWNLOADS: Some documents are available in PDF format, you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later for viewing which can be downloaded from the Adobe Website

DOWNLOADS: Some documents are available in ‘Microsoft Word’ format. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you can read these documents by downloading the free 'Word Viewer'. This program can be downloaded at the Microsoft website