Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 24
24
The DWP contact centre relied on telephone numbers in NHS patient records to call clinically...
Conclusion
The DWP contact centre relied on telephone numbers in NHS patient records to call clinically vulnerable people who had not yet registered their needs. In some 375,000 cases out of the 800,000 people that the contact centre could not get hold of, or over 20% of the 1.8 million people the centre attempted to contact, it was because of missing or inaccurate phone numbers. While government knew that a proportion of telephone numbers in NHS records were missing or inaccurate, the Programme agreed to use telephone numbers from NHS records to follow-up hard-copy letters.57 51 Qq 60–64 52 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.10, 3.2 53 Q 65; C&AG’s Report, paras 17, 3.4–3.5 54 Qq 64–65 55 Q 68; C&AG’s Report, para 17 56 Qq 66–69 57 C&AG’s report, para 2.8, 3.6, 3.24 Covid 19: supporting the vulnerable during lockdown 15
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
6.2 Whilst the government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation, it does not agree with the conclusion that the lack of up to date phone numbers had a material impact on the government's ability to provide the necessary advice to CEV people. The shielding programme primarily uses letters as its main channel of communication with CEV people, as address data is the most reliable and complete data available, and letters are the most trusted format for communicating important changes to shielding policy. Email and telephone numbers were used for follow-up, but it is known that this data is less reliable in-patient records. All patient contact details are stored in the Personal Demographics Service which already allows different NHS bodies to access the data it needs – the issue has been that the data is not always complete or up to date. 6.3 During the shielding programme DHSC used shielding letters to encourage CEV people to update their contact details with their GPs, as this would allow the department to send more information via email and ensure that the correct details are held, should there be a need to contact people again. 6.4 NHSX, supported by NHS Digital, is leading a programme of work to improve the completeness of patient contact details and make sure that data is kept up to date for all patients, not just the CEV group. NHSX is committed to ensuring that the NHS Number is the primary identifier for all patients across health and social care and that it is associated with all data held about patients. 6.5 DHSC and NHS Digital will report back to the Committee with details of the work ongoing and the plans to further improve patient contact data.