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Background

We are required to check our data sharing against the national Opt out database. You are not allowed to hold the opt out status against the record but can maintain a cache of the results for a fixed period but must regularly update it.

There is currently one way this can be checked which is using a MESH mailbox https://digital.nhs.uk/services/national-data-opt-out/compliance-with-the-national-data-opt-out/check-for-national-data-opt-outs-service. In the longer term there will be a an HL7 FHIR rest api API that can be queried https://developer.nhs.uk/apis/optout/overview_ndop.html.

The All UKRR databases will need to check the opt out status of any records pulled out to ensure we are meeting the patients preferences. This means we need a process to manage the regular checking and maintenance of opt out status with in the cache limits specified by NHS England or we need to submit each extract data identifiers and verify if all identifiers are eligible for this extract.

The deadline to put this process in place was the end of March but has been extended 6 months to 30th September 2021. 

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Process

We now have a MESH mailbox (MESHUI https://portal.spineservices.nhs.uk/meshui/) which allows us to access the National Opt out -Out checking (Currently all members of the systems Team can submit opt out files). The requirements for using this is to create a .dat  file of NHS numbers each on a new line with a comma  and LF  (NOT CRLF) at the end of each row. This is an example file using dummy NHS numbers taken from NHS Digital website.

example.dat

9000543664,
9000956406,
9000617017,
9000429321,
9000962382,
9000819657,
9000159594,
9000898358,
9000093377,
9000174186,
9000449907,
9000401318,
9000662584,
9000363907,
9000683339,
9000803888,
9000134329,
9000961849,
9000092770,
9000925967,
9000230070,
9000021513,
9000581394,
9000504543,

The file needs use a a unique name and NHS Digital recommend  recommend your mailbox ID, the date the file is produced, and a 4-digit sequence number to show what order that file has been produced in that month, each separated by hyphens.

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The mail box is accessed via https://portal.spineservices.nhs.uk/meshui/

The mailbox has a few setting requirements...

• Select the correct message type

  • SPINE NDOP External Upholding - (SPINE_NTT_UPHOLDING)

• select the recipient of mailbox X26HC065 - NHS Digital POS Mailbox

• attach the file  (saved as a .dat file type)

• message subject and message reference need to  be filled in (though the MESH UI suggests they are optional they are required for this process to work) using a reference with unique identifiers. I have used the file name for the subject and for the message I have included a time stamp as this is used to identify/name the returned file add a project designator here as well as this name is used for the returned file name.

Click submit  to send the message the response will be received in the next 40 minutes. If the mail message setup is incorrect (such as not filling in subject and message fields ) then no response will be received.

If successful you receive back a file to download named the same as the message with a .dat  extension. The format is the same as the sent file only now it only contains NHS numbers for people who haven't opted out.

OPT OUT Submission Records 

To keep a record of optouts Q:\National OptOut  has been created with a submitted and returned folder.

The file sent should be put in Q:\National OptOut\submitted

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A log of  file name and its purpose is held in Q:\National OptOut\Submitted Data.txt

References

Check for National Data Opt-outs Service - NHS Digital

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