Health and care staff must share information effectively to support individuals’ care

Sharing data can substantially improve NHS and wider health care. We are publishing this statement to encourage frontline workers to share individuals’ health and care information more confidently, to provide them with the best possible care.

Whilst it is right to be diligent about confidential data, this should never come at the expense of people’s care. We are calling on staff to prioritise the availability of relevant information at the point of care so that individuals can receive the safe and appropriate treatment they expect.

People have the right to expect that their health or care provider will have access to the most current and accurate information about their condition. This is essential to support professionals to make informed decisions about an individual’s treatment and overall well-being. It is the responsibility of those involved in a person’s care to provide relevant information about them, both within and outside of their own organisations, to ensure that safe and joined-up care can be given.

Sometimes, information is not available when it should be because we know there are some anxieties about information governance and confidentiality. We want to be clear that data protection isn’t a barrier to providing continuous patient care across disciplines or specialities. In most circumstances, you can share this information without fear of getting into trouble. The duty to share information for individual care is as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality, as advised in Caldicott Principle 7.

This applies to anyone in the health and social care community: whether you’re a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist, a social care worker or an allied health professional, data protection is seldom an obstacle to you appropriately sharing information to provide care. We strongly urge you to use and share information with confidence.

We recognise that gaining confidence in this area can be difficult. That's why the NHS has developed straightforward and easy-to-understand advice to assist you in making informed decisions about sharing information. You can find this guidance on the NHS England Information Governance portal. Additionally, there's a brief online training module.

Remember that if you are concerned or unsure about an information sharing situation, your organisation’s Caldicott Guardian, Data Protection Officer or senior staff should be able to support you.