Mental Health & Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, 2014 - Patients Treated Outwith NHS Scotland

2. Methodology & further information

Time period and scope

The Mental Health & Learning Disability Bed Census, was carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS Boards as at midnight, 29 October 2014.

The census covered:

• every patient occupying a psychiatric, addiction or learning disability inpatient bed in an NHS Scotland facility on the census date (midnight at the end of 29th October 2014).
• every mental health, addiction or learning disability patient whose care is funded by NHS Scotland, but is being treated in a facility that is out with NHS Scotland (e.g. in a local authority care home, in a private hospital, in a NHS England facility), on the census date (midnight at the end of 29^th October 2014).

The census guidance notes are available here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/DataSupplier/MHandLD

Data completeness

All NHS Scotland territorial boards which had psychiatric, learning disability or addiction patients treated out with NHS Scotland as at the census provided a return.

Data completeness for individual census questions varied. Where there was missing data, this has been footnoted against the corresponding table or displayed in the chart.

Data collection

The Scottish Government's Scotxed Unit provide data collection and validation support for a number of statistical returns across Education, Health, Social Care, Social Work, Transport, Housing, Communities, Finance, Justice, Environment and some 3^rd Sector. The Scotxed Unit provided secure data collection software (procxed.net) and first stage data validation checks. Further information about the data collection software can be found in the Privacy Impact Assessment which is available here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/DataSupplier/MHandLD.

Health Analytical Services Division undertook 2^nd stage validation checks.

The data collection, analysis and report has been overseen and produced by statisticians. All statistics branches in the Scottish Government are part of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) which comprises the statistics divisions of all major departments in the UK, Scotland and Wales plus the Office for National Statistics, which has a coordinating role.

Data confidentiality

A Privacy Impact Assessment was undertake prior to the census which outlines how patient confidentiality is maintained. The Privacy Impact Assessment is available here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/DataSupplier/MHandLD.

In addition, statistical disclosure control has been applied to the analysis. Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) covers a range of ways of changing data which are used to control the risk of an intruder finding out confidential information about a person or unit (such as a household or business). This publication has used the following methods where there are under 10 patients in a particular category:

• Suppression of possibly disclosive cells (e.g. where the value is small) which means that the value for that cell in the table is not given and secondary suppression of cells which means at least one other value in the row or column is also not given to ensure that disclosive cells cannot be deduced through subtraction;
• Table redesign and recoding, where cells are grouped together to protect small value cells.

Further information about Statistical Disclosure Control is available here: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/About/Methodology/Glossary

Health Conditions

The International Classification of Diseases (10^th Revision)^[6] has been used in the analysis for specific health conditions. The health conditions and relevant ICD-10 codes can be found in the following table:

Forensic patients

Forensic patients were identified if NHS Boards indicated 'yes' to the following census question: is the patient being managed primarily by forensic services?

Access to the data for further research

To enable further research and statistical analysis, extracts of the Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census data may be made available for approved researchers from late 2015.

Academic researchers must initially apply to the 'Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care^[7]' to gain access to the Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census data. If the 'Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care' approve an application then a copy of the original application form and a copy of the approval letter should be emailed to the following address SWStat@scotland.gsi.gov.uk for approval by the Scottish Government (Health Analytical Services Division and the Principal Medical Officer for Mental Health).

NHS Boards will have a version of the Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census dataset which contains information about patients for whom they are responsible for providing treatment for, or are responsible for funding. NHS boards will have their own arrangements in place for researchers to access health data. All Boards have a Caldicott Guardian who is responsible for assuring confidentiality and enabling appropriate data sharing, and a director responsible for research and development.