Sharing Information - Partner Organisations - NHS South East Coast Ambulance Service

SECAmb covers a wide geographic footprint covering the Surrey, North Hampshire, Kent and Sussex localities.

As part of a national programme we are working closely with our partner organisations, social care providers and Integrated Care System (ICS) groups to integrate clinical systems.

This integration programme involves the sharing and contributing of SECAmb patient care records with our regional partners so that it is accessible via their shared care records. It supports the ongoing delivery of patient care and aids clinical decision making leading to better patient outcomes.

The integration of records for the Surrey, North Hampshire and Kent localities has been completed, with work ongoing across Sussex to gain access to their shared care record.

Ambulance Data Sets (ADS)

South East Coast Ambulance Service routinely collect information from the initial contact when we receive a call in the 999 Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) through to completing an electronic patient record (EPR) with information about the patient and care we provide, when we attend an incident. Some of this information goes on to form part of the Ambulance Data Set (ADS).

If a patient is transferred from ambulance services to the care of an Emergency Department, information within the Ambulance Data Set is subsequently linked with key information collected in Emergency Departments as part of the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS).

The purpose of this is to fully understand the patient’s journey from the ambulance service to other urgent and emergency healthcare settings. This will enable clinicians, ambulance services and the NHS to learn from patient journeys and further improve the care they provide in the future.

Data collected by ambulance services and emergency departments is securely linked and transferred to us. Data collected as part of the Ambulance Data Set is shared with NHS Digital* – a section of NHS England specialised in data and IT systems – where it is linked with key relevant information in the Emergency Care Data Set and securely returned to us.

This linked information includes a unique number generated by us during the initial 999 call, as well as a unique vehicle reference which will help us re-identify the original care record for the incident and the patient.

Appropriate access to this information will enable us to help develop the skills of our clinicians to improve the care they provide and support us in delivering service improvements to improve patient experience.

Patients will be able to opt out from this process, therefore disabling linking of data collected about their emergency episode of care, if they so wish, Please click here for more information.

The lawful bases under common law for this process are as follows:

For the ambulance service to process this information the lawful basis is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is Article 6 (1)(e) – “…exercise of official authority” and for processing special categories (health) data the basis is: Article 9(2)(h) – ‘…health or social care…’ of the GDPR Regulations.

For the data collected by ambulance services (ADS) to be linked with relevant data items collected at Emergency Departments (ECDS) the lawful basis is the Sections 254(1), (3), (5) and (6), section 260(2)(d), section 261(2)(e) and section 304(9), (10) and (12) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, as per the Ambulance Data Set Directions 2022.

To share linked data back with ambulance services, NHS England on behalf of Ambulance Services, have obtained a Section 251 approval, as required by the NHS Act 2006 and Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002.

Overall, the above provides a legal bases for patient information to be processed for these purposes.

*= NHS Digital officially merged with NHS England on 1st Feb 2023, therefore the organisation previously known as NHS Digital is legally known as NHS England and data held by NHS Digital is now held within NHS England.

Further information relating to these programmes, including associated Privacy Notices and FAQs may be accessed via the following links below:

Urgent Community Response Services

NHS England commission Urgent Community Response (UCR’s) to respond to individuals with an urgent health or social care need. These teams provide short-term support, to diagnose and treat conditions, provide appropriate equipment and care to the patient, to prevent a hospital admission. As part of direct patient care SECAmb is now working with its UCR teams who will review lower category call patients and where clinically appropriate accept these into their UCR commissioned pathway. All these services conform to Data Security & Protection Toolkit requirements and Information Governance obligations.

There are 19 teams within the SECAmb region which the Trust is working closely with. Each UCR is hosted by an NHS organisation / NHS provider. Their operating hours may be variable but typically this is between 08:00 – 20:00, 7 days a week.

Further information may be found below:

https://www.secamb.nhs.uk/trust-working-with-partners-to-improve-care-for-lower-category-call-patients/

Unscheduled Care Navigation Hub Programme

Following successful trials at SECAmb’s Paddock Wood and Ashford Make Ready Centres, the Trust is expanding its Unscheduled Care Navigation Hub (UCNHs) pilot across the region. This programme forms a key part of our Trust strategy and aligns with NHS England directives.

Each hub is designed to streamline patient care by ensuring patients are assessed, treated, or discharged safely and appropriately at their first point of contact by a co-located multidisciplinary team. The following hubs will follow the same model and process:

Ashford MRC – East Kent UCNH (existing)
Paddock Wood MRC – West Kent UCNH (existing)
Strood ACRP – North Kent UCNH
Brighton MRC – Central Sussex UCNH
Polegate MRC – East Sussex UCNH

To ensure patient confidentiality, these UCNHs will operate within secure, closed environments within SECAmb. Each hub conforms to the Cyber Assurance Framework (Data Security & Protection Toolkit) requirements and Information Governance obligations. Operational hours will initially be 0800 – 1800, Monday to Friday, with potential expansion as the model is evaluated.

Further information may be found below:

https://www.secamb.nhs.uk/trust-set-for-rollout-of-additional-clinical-hubs/

Surrey UCNH programme – Virtual Model

As part of the UCHN programme a virtual model pilot will be launched for the Surrey area. This model will include multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational teams (MDT) which are located within a Community and Acute Trust setting. These will link into 2 SECAmb hubs as shown below.

West Hub: hosted in Tongham Ambulance Station and Chertsey MRC

Virtual locations covering West Hub:

Frimley South – covering Surrey Heath, Northeast Hants, and Farnham, staffed by Frimley Health Foundation Trust located at Frimley Park Hospital
Guildford and Waverley – covering Guildford, staffed by Royal Surrey County Trust located at Milford Hospital
Northwest Surrey – covering Northwest Surrey, staffed by Central Surrey Health located at Woking Community Hospital

East Hub: hosted in Banstead Make Ready Centre and West EOC (Gatwick APP’s)

Virtual locations covering East Hub:

East Surrey – covering East Surrey, staffed by the GP Federation Alliance for Better Care located at the GP’s Primary Care workplace
Surrey Downs – covering Dorking, East Elmbridge, and Surrey Downs, staffed by Surrey Downs Health and Care located at Dorking Hospital, Epsom Hospital and Molesey Community Hospital.

Each hub is designed to streamline patient care by ensuring patients are assessed, treated, or discharged safely and appropriately at their first point of contact by a virtual multidisciplinary team. These will all follow the same model and process.

To ensure patient confidentiality, each organisation participating within the virtual UCNH model will operate within secure, closed environments conforming to Cyber Assurance Framework (Data Security & Protection Toolkit) requirements and Information Governance obligations. Operational hours will initially be 0800 – 1800, Monday to Friday, with potential expansion as the model is evaluated.

Further information may be found below:

https://www.secamb.nhs.uk/trust-set-for-rollout-of-additional-clinical-hubs/

Shared Health and Care Analytics Board

This is the senior governance group for the analyst community across Kent and Medway. Your information will be passed, with all identifiers removed, to a collaborative programme called the Kent & Medway Shared Health and Care Analytics Board. It will be used for population health management purposes beyond your individual care, including, for example, planning services, managing finances, early treatment of illnesses (known as risk stratification), co-ordinating and improving patient and service user’s movement through the health and care system, research, and public health enhancement.

Further information can be found on the NHS Kent & Medway Website

https://www.kmhealthandcare.uk/transformation-projects/kent-and-medway-care-record

Sharing Information - Partner Organisations

Surrey Care Record

Thames Valley Care Record

Kent and Medway Care Record

Sussex Care Record

Shared Health and Care Analytics Board