This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Staff not discouraged from sharing sensitive information on apps
A series of freedom of information requests from CommonTime has revealed that the majority of acute trusts have no policy to discourage consumer instant messaging tools.
Many hospitals are found to not be taking important steps to prevent staff sharing sensitive information via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other consumer applications, with many organisations also failing to offer staff effective alternatives.
Analysing responses from 136 of England’s 151 acute trusts, CommonTime find that 58 per cent of trusts have no policy in place to discourage consumer instant messaging, despite much-publicised data protection concerns. Furthermore, 56 per cent provided staff with no approved alternative to consumer messaging applications, while only 17 trusts said they had simply banned instant messaging applications altogether.
The 2018 Instant Messaging in the NHS report revealed that 43 per cent of NHS staff are reliant on instant messaging at work, with many professionals believing patient care will suffer without access to the technology.
Rowan Pritchard-Jones, consultant burns and plastic surgeon and chief clinical information officer at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, commented on the latest findings: “As is usual, NHS staff have adopted technology, likely in the belief that they are doing the right thing to support patient care, in an increasingly pressurised environment. It is incumbent on digital leaders to embed in our evolving culture the need to protect patient confidentiality, deliver these conversations into the patient record, and support staff to have these interactions with the support of their organisations.”
David Juby, head of IT and security at CommonTime, said: “When considering the usage of WhatsApp and other consumer messaging apps within a GDPR context, a health service data controller must consider if they are able to provide a copy of data if requested by a patient and that they able to erase personal data when requested.”
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