The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

D2. Hospital Episodes Statistics Non-Disclosure Agreement Form – Sensitive tabulations

This form is appropriate for requesting tabulations of Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data that are sensitive. For example, the table may have small numbers in the cells that cannot be suppressed in the normal manner.

Organisation:

Responsible lead:

Data custodian:

HES Reference:OPP/117/005

Project:HES Cardiac data

HES data provided:

Data presented as Excel pivot tables for different types of cancer, containing a selection of the following HES variables:

December 2004

The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

Trust

SHA of Trust

SHA of patient

PCT of patient

Specialty

Age band

Diagnosis

Main procedure

Sub procedure

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The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

Class of patient (ordinary admission, etc)

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The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

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The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

and of the following derived variables:

December 2004

The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

IT cluster of Trust

Network of Trust

Country of patient

Network of patient

Type of patient (cancer type)

Type of tumour (malignant, etc)

Site of tumour

Sub-site of tumour

December 2004

The HES Protocol

Annex D2 – Non-Disclosure: sensitive tabulations

Sensitivities:

Patients must not be identified -

  • Patient information must not be used to identify (or recognise) individual patients. HES data must be handled with proper regard to the confidentiality of individuals.
  • Any published HES figure(s) at a local level must be based on no fewer than 6 cases or else suppressed (eg replaced with an asterisk, with a note “* in this table means a figure between 1 and 5”). Low-level analyses might facilitate the identification of individual patients, especially with local knowledge. Care should be taken to ensure that values may not be more closely calculated by differencing from sub-totals. For practical purposes, any geographic reference smaller than Strategic Health Authority should be considered local.

I agree

a)that there is a business need for this work requiring data with the sensitivities indicated above.

b)to abide by the instructions given against the sensitivities.

c)that the data will be stored with proper safeguards to prevent unauthorised access.

d)that the data will not be copied or transferred to any third party without their appropriate sign-up to non-disclosure. Note: output based on the data may be shared provided it abides by the rules above.

e)to give prior notice of intention to publish HES data to the HES section (contact below) and where feasible provide a copy of the published work. Any published work containing HES data must acknowledge the source:“Hospital Episode Statistics (Department of Health)”.

f)to inform NATCANSAT as soon as possible if custodianship of the data should change.

Signed______

Name______

Telephone contact number______

E-mail address______

Date______

NATCANSAT contact:

Helen Forbes

NATCANSAT

Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology

Clatterbridge Road

Bebington

Wirral

CH63 4JY

Email:

Tel: 0870 8408033

Fax: 0151 482 7674

HES contact:

Sheila M Dixon

Rm 445B, Skipton House, Dept of Health, 80 London Rd, LondonSE1 6LH.

Email:

Tel: 0207 972 5523

Fax: 0207 972 5662

Please complete and return this form to the NATCANSAT contact above. The HES data can only be made available once the agreement is received.

December 2004