Information Governance

Information Governance is the way by which the NHS handles all organisational information - in particular the personal and sensitive information of patients and employees. It allows organisations and individuals to ensure that personal information is dealt with legally, securely, efficiently and effectively, in order to deliver the best possible care.

It provides a framework to bringing together the requirements, standards and best practice that apply to the handling of information. It has four fundamental aims:

• To support the provision of high quality care by promoting the effective and appropriate use of information;
• To encourage responsible staff to work closely together, preventing duplication of effort and enabling more efficient use of resources;
• To develop support arrangements and provide staff with appropriate tools and support to enable them to discharge their responsibilities to consistently high standards;
• To enable organisations to understand their own performance and manage improvement in a systematic and effective way.

The framework currently encompasses:

• Data Protection Act 1998
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• The Confidentiality Code of Practice
• Records Management
• Information Quality Assurance
• Information Security
• Information Governance Management

More information can be found in the Connecting for Health Information Governance leaflet.

The Birmingham Women’s Health Care NHS Trust (BWHCT) has a comprehensive Information Governance programme managed by the Trust's Information Governance Group and co-ordinated by the Information Governance Manager. Compliance is assessed by means of the annual Information Governance Toolkit returns.

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