NHS England Data Sharing Remote Audit: University of East Anglia

Purpose

This report records the key findings of a remote data sharing audit of University of East Anglia (UEA) between 19 June and 23 June 2023. It provides an evaluation of how UEA conform to the requirements of:

• the data sharing framework contract (DSFC) CON-324412-Y0F4Z-v2.02  
• the data sharing agreement  (DSA) DARS-NIC- 79526-V8F2X-v2.7 
• the organisation’s own policies, processes and procedures

This DSA covers the provision of the following datasets:

The Controller is UEA.

The University of East Anglia require pseudonymised secondary care data (hospital admissions, Accident and Emergency (A&E), outpatient and critical care data, and mortality data), for a selected cohort of previously identified patients for the At-Risk Registers Integrated into primary care to Stop Asthma crisis in the UK (ARRISA-UK) study. The study is performed by the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU) which sits within the Norwich School of Medicine under the faculty of Medicine and Health at UEA.

Excellent drugs are available for asthma and clear advice on prescribing them should allow asthma to be controlled in most patients. It is known that certain asthma patients are at greater risk of being admitted or dying than others and that targeting intensive support and care to these patients improves their health. The purpose of the study is to determine whether flagging the electronic health records of people identified as being at risk of asthma attacks and training staff on the action to take when seeing the flag reduces asthma related crisis events (defined as hospital admissions, A&E attendances and deaths) over a 12 month period.

The interviews during the audit were conducted through video conferencing. 

This is an exception report based on the criteria expressed in the NHS England Data Sharing Remote Audit Guide version 1.

Audit type and scope

Data recipient’s acceptance statement

UEA has reviewed this report and confirmed that it is accurate. 

Data recipient’s action plan

UEA will establish a corrective action plan to address each finding shown in the findings table below. The Audit Team will validate this plan and the resultant actions at a post audit review with UEA to confirm the findings have been satisfactorily addressed.

The following table identifies the 6 agreement nonconformities, 5 organisation nonconformities, 4 observations, 6 opportunities for improvement and 4 points for follow-up raised as part of the audit.

Use of data

UEA confirmed that the datasets were only being processed and used for the purposes defined in the DSA and were only being linked with those datasets explicitly allowed in the DSA.

Data location

UEA confirmed that processing and storage locations, including disaster recovery and backups, of the datasets were limited to the location shown in the following table. These locations conform with the territory of use defined in section 2c of the DSA.

Backup retention

The duration for which data may be retained on backup media is:

The audit was based upon a sample of the data recipient’s activities, as observed by the Audit Team. The findings detailed in this audit report may not include all possible nonconformities which may exist. In addition, as the audit interviews were conducted through a video conference platform, certain controls that would normally be assessed whilst onsite could not be witnessed.

NHS England has prepared this audit report for its own purposes. As a result, NHS England does not assume any liability to any person or organisation for any loss or damage suffered or costs incurred by it arising out of, or in connection with, this report, however such loss or damage is caused. NHS England does not assume liability for any loss occasioned to any person or organisation acting or refraining from acting as a result of any information contained in this report.