SSNAP currently has approval under Section 251 to collect patient level data on the first 6 months of patient care (23/CAG/0031). The rationale for this legal basis is that many stroke patients are extremely unwell in the acute phase of their treatment and it is therefore not feasible to rely on patient consent during this time period. More information on section 251 is available here.

Patient consent is explicitly sought at 6 months post-stroke though it can also be recorded during the patient’s inpatient stay. Where a patient refuses consent for inclusion in SSNAP, all their personal identifiable information will be wiped from the dataset and no further linkages to other data sources will therefore be possible; however their non-identifiable data will continue to be held on the database as it is important for the purpose of SSNAP to analyse all data without selection bias.

SSNAP has research Section 251 approval for the data collected in the audit to be used in research (23/CAG/0030). This allows SSNAP data to support high quality research into the provision of stroke care and current standards of clinical practice, the impact of the organisation of stroke services on care provision, and the impact of specific stroke interventions on outcomes, among other areas of research into stroke. 
 
Patient data are collected via a secure web-based tool provided by Net Solving Ltd. and security and confidentially are maintained through the use of passwords and a person specific registration.

More detailed information on how SSNAP collects and shares data securely is available in:
 

SSNAP's Fair Processing Notice for Users

SSNAP's Fair Processing Statement for Patients

Additional information relevant to patients and carers is available in the information for patients area of the website.