Database mooted for healthcare professionals

The Department of Health is to investigate whether a national database should be set up to hold information on the fitness to practice of all healthcare professionals in the UK.

The database would hold information on concerns about the performance, conduct and health of healthcare professionals and will be considered as part of a scoping exercise the DH is about to commission.

The scoping study will investigate the technical options for meeting the information needs of new plans to regulate health professionals. These include a possible extension to the Electronic Staff Record.

Two reports published by the DH this week, Tackling Concerns Nationally and Tackling Concerns Locally, set out recommendations for taking forward the government’s plans for overhauling regulation of healthcare professionals.

These were originally set out in the 2007 white paper Trust, Assurance, Safety: the Rregulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century.

Tackling Concerns Locally looks at how local arrangements for identifying and dealing with poor performance among health care workers can be strengthened.

It says that the DH should make an early decision on the options for developing a centralised database following its scoping study.

If it was decided that such a database was not feasible or that it would pose too much of a risk, the report recommends that the DH should look instead at holding a core of information on the national register for each profession.

The Information Management sub-group of TCL has issued its own report and recommendations. It says the DH should issue guidance to NHS organisations on the information that should be held locally on healthcare professionals.

This should include information obtained at the time of their initial recruitment, relevant clinical quality indicators, complaints and concerns from patients and professionals, adverse events and information on health issues which are likely to affect performance.

The sub-group argues that if organisations received “soft” information about a professional they should decide whether the information – if true – would pose a threat to patient safety. If so the allegation should be thoroughly investigated and recorded.

It adds that unless or until a national database is established, local organisations should collate information for healthcare professionals employed by them or contracted to provide services to them.

PCTs should maintain an oversight for locum GPs on their performers list. In other cases, locum agencies should exercise this function.

The group also says that its “provisional view” is that information should be held on a centralised database. However, it says it will review the recommendations once the DH’s scoping study had been completed.

It says any central database should be able to hold information on GPs and professionals working in private or non-NHS practice.

Tackling Concerns Nationally sets out proposals for the creation of a new body, the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator, which will adjudicate following fitness to practise investigations.

The DH said local implementation would be supported by detailed operational guidance and regulations later in the year.

Health minister Ben Bradshaw said the reports went a long way to ensuring healthcare standards in the NHS were high and to reassure both the public and professionals.

He added: “Our overriding priority is to ensure that patients and the public are protected. The recommendations outlined will put in place the best systems, both locally and nationally, to identify and address concerns about individual professional conduct and competence.”