NHS refused to pull care.data leaflet

NHS England ignored advice issued by a government body that its care.data door-drop campaign was “not fit for purpose”, and claimed it was too late to pull the botched leaflet as it was already at the printers.
The issue has been revealed in the annual report of the Independent Information Governance Oversight Panel (IIGOP), a body set up to advise the NHS and ministers about data governance, chaired by Dame Fiona Caldicott.
According to the report, the leaflet was sent to the panel shortly before the its quarterly meeting on December 9, 2013 and it ruled the leaflet was not up to scratch.
The report stated: “On the following day IIGOP advised NHS England that its leaflet was not fit for purpose, but was informed that it had already been sent to the printers and would not be recalled.”
The IIGOP went on to claim that when the leaflet was distributed it “raised more questions than it answered”, and that there were concerns that patients were not adequately informed about their right to refuse to allow their data to be uploaded from their GP surgery, or to restrict its subsequent use without any impact on their direct care.
The contract for the leaflet – ironically headlined “Better information means better care” – was awarded to The Leaflet Company and delivered by Royal Mail over a three-week period between January and February last year. It was later revealed that the final bill for the initiative topped £1.3m.
At the time, one industry source told DecisionMarketing: “I don’t know why the door-to-door industry is getting the blame. For a start the creative is crap. It’s got about as much cut-through as a butter knife.
“If anything, it looks like an advert for a care home, rather than for one of the most important public information campaigns in recent years. And, let’s be fair, if you want to stand out among the other unaddressed communications, you have to work much harder.”
In response to the issue, the IIGOP recently submitted a report to the care.data programme board, listing 27 areas of concern and 52 questions relating to the handling of patient data that it wants answered.
There has been no date set for a full roll out of the programme, although trials are continuing.

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