Data quality
The Digital Services organisation within the Trust provides technology to support the operational activities and corporate service areas, digital transformation technology programmes and information and data services. From a digital live service availability and reliability perspective, the digital team led a positive step change improvement in many areas in comparison to 2021/22. Most significantly we had zero major disruption to digital services through the year, completion of remedial actions included the hosting of critical digital platforms to multiple Trust locations combined with the expected and now proven benefit of stability of the new Trust wide 999 digital telephony platform and a full roll out of a new IP telephony system deployed across all Trust locations. The digital services team continued to deliver the five-year Trust’s Digital Strategy with a move from physical environments to virtualised and Cloud based technology following the strategy of Cloud first in line with NHS best practice. The strategy is now at a midpoint review and will be further evolved to support the Trust’s other long term transformation programmes.
Protection of the Trust from cyber security intrusion continued to be a challenge. The Trust responded to seventeen national critical cyber incidents which the digital teams actioned to provide immediate intervention to protect our digital services. As a Trust we receive an average of two million emails and send an average of three hundred thousand emails every month internally and externally. The Trust has over seven thousand end user devices all with connection to the internet. Through the year whilst we saw daily unauthorised attempts to access our systems including multiple brute force attacks, however the integrity of all our digital systems and assets were protected and maintained.
The Trust has several processes in place to ensure that data included within the Quality Account is accurate and provides a balanced view.
These include:
- Clinical data and outcomes
- Checked and verified by the Clinical Audit Manager prior to submission to the national audit programmes,
- Monthly checks of the Department of Health statistical reports to ensure latest comparative data is included,
- Assurance through internal governance processes to Board Level via the Integrated Board Report.
- Data Security Protection Toolkit
- Assurance provided through Information Governance Group to Trust Board via the Audit Committee.
- Regular scrutiny of processes and information through:
- Quality Governance Committee,
- Clinical Commissioning Groups contracting requirements,
- Data Quality Committee.
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