United Kingdom Registry of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgery (UKRETS)
Privacy Notice - Data Protection and Confidentiality
What is UKRETS?
Formerly known as the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons (BAETS) Audit,
UKRETS is the Thyroid and Endocrine Surgery Audit for the United Kingdom which was set up in
2004 and run by the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons (BAETS). It was
established with the aim of improving the quality of services and outcomes for patients
undergoing endocrine surgical operations. BAETS collects information on the outcomes from
thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and endocrine pancreatic surgery. Currently there are > 100,000
entries in the UKRETS database.
The data from UKRETS is analysed and published anonymously in a national report, now in its 5
th
edition in 2017. This report sets out the extent of endocrine surgery undertaken by BAETS
members in the UK as well as detailed information on investigations, pathology, operative
details and surgical outcomes. This provides valuable information on the quality and safety of
surgical outcomes, trends in the management of surgical endocrine disease and provides a
national standard, against which BAETS members can compare to their own practice. This helps
drive up standards and improve outcomes for patients undergoing endocrine surgical
operations.
What information does it contain?
Each entry in UKRETS is a separate endocrine (thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal or pancreatic endocrine)
surgical operation. Data has been collected in UKRETS since it was set up in 2004. The information is
collected by the consultant in charge of that patients care and includes details about:
• The patient – age, date of birth, gender
• Investigations – results of pre-operative biopsies, scans
• Operation – type, extent, surgeon, equipment used
• Pathology
• Outcome – complications, mortality, date of discharge, length of stay
• Follow-up – date of follow-up, discharge, presence of long-term complications
It is anticipated that we will in future, record the NHS number of patients in England and Wales to
help identify patients undergoing multiple surgical operations and also cross-check our data against
other NHS databases such as Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data.
What is the legal basis for UKRETS?
UKRETS data are collected for a “medical purpose”, as defined in the 2006 National Health Service
Act Section 251, for the provision of care and treatment and the management of health and social
care services.
The data are collected by BAETS members on patients undergoing endocrine (thyroid,
parathyroid, adrenal and pancreatic endocrine) surgical operations with the approval of the
Secretary of State under Section 251. This approval is reviewed each year and approval sought for
the following year.
Who manages UKRETS?
UKRETS was set up in 2004 and is managed by the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid
Surgeons in conjunction with Dendrite Clinical Systems Ltd with the intention of improving the
quality of services and outcome from endocrine surgical operations.
What happens to the data and who can see it?
The consultant in charge of care, or a member of his clinical team collects this data and enters it
onto UKRETS via secure username and password protected web-based access to the audit (www.
baets.org.uk/audit/). During the data transfer from the hospital to the NHS server the information is
encrypted (locked) to ensure it cannot be interfered with. Once this information has been loaded, a
consultant can review or edit his own data via the same username and password protected access,
but cannot view data recorded by other BAETS members. When the data have been checked by the
clinician, software engineers and data analysts at Dendrite Clinical Systems will download the data to
a secure server in Dendrite’s offices.
Anonymous Data from UKRETS is analysed and published in a national report by Dendrite Clinical
Systems Ltd on behalf of the BAETS. Now in its 5
th
edition this report gives valuable insights into
trends and outcomes in endocrine surgery in the United Kingdom and also gives clinicians,
commissioners and healthcare providers a benchmark of national standards against which they can
compare care in different centres. Information on outcomes specifically from thyroid surgery are
also published annually on the NHS Choices website as part of the Consultant Outcome Publication
programme by the Health Quality Improvement Programme (HQIP). This data is searchable by
clinician or hospital and aims to help members of the public when choosing which hospital or
clinician to look after their care. It is important to note that neither of these reports contains the
details of individual patients.
UKRETS Database Server
The server is hosted on the NHS network (N3) within a data centre in London, by Piksel. This is a tier
four data centre which meets the highest levels of building security. The service delivery and
information governance provided complies with ISO 20000 & ISO 9001 accreditation and the security
structure is aligned alongside ISO27001. The security arrangements are internally audited
approximately every three months and externally audited every six months. All servers have firewall
and anti-virus software installed which is configured to use real-time scanning.
Backup Resilience
The data is securely backed-up each day. All backed up data stored is compressed, de-duplicated and
encrypted within a secure off-site vault. There are two backup vaults, the primary one is hosted
locally and is then backed up to a secure secondary off-site vault hosted within a separate
datacentre located at Heathrow.
Dendrite Security
Dendrite Clinical Systems is assessed against NHS Information Governance standards, which includes
both physical and organisational security measures. Dendrite’s toolkit assessment score is available
on the IG Toolkit website (https://www.igt.hscic.gov.uk/Home.aspx). The computer software
programme created by Dendrite that holds the UKRETS data has been independently tested to
ensure that it is not vulnerable to unauthorised access, or internal breaches of security.
Can I ask to see the data that UKRETS holds about me?
Yes - requests to see what data is held on the UKRETS database about you may be made through a
subject access request via the BAETS website (www.baets.org.uk).
British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons,
Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland,
35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
London,
WC2A 3PE