From four practices to 229: GP pilot accelerates Secure Data Environment rollout.
Four GP practices across the region have helped shape how patient data is accessed safely for health and care research and planning, supporting the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Secure Data Environment (SDE) team to make it easier for more practices to get involved.
By working with this small group of GP practices, the programme team gathered insights to help support the wider roll out of primary care data into the SDE. Since the pilots, and with extensive support from the Integrated Care Board and the Great North Care Record team – a further 219 practices have signed up to share anonymised or pseudonymised patient records with the Secure Data Environment programme.
Pilot insights
Over summer 2025, the Secure Data Environment programme team worked closely with:
- Branch End Surgery
- Westerhope Medical Group
- Union and Brae Practice
- Teams and Glen Park Medical Practice
These practices volunteered to take part in a pilot. The aim was simple: test the process, understand the impact on GP teams, and improve how we explain the SDE to patients before rolling it out more widely.
Listening to GP feedback
From the start, practices told us what mattered most:
- Would this increase workload?
- Would patients be worried or complain?
- Was it safe?
- How much pressure would it put on admin teams?
The pilot practices helped:
- Test patient posters, SMS messages, and website content
- Improve wording so it’s easier to understand
- Add examples showing what data looks like once personal details are removed
- Shape a dedicated SDE helpline for general enquiries, not just opt-outs
Posters and online resources were shared for a month before data started flowing. Text messages included a phone number for support, and patients could get in touch by phone, email, or post.
Based on GP feedback, the helpline was changed to act as a single point of contact for anyone with questions. Over 8,500 SMS messages were sent which generated £5K web views and just 33 opt-outs.
Safeguarding the data on a regional scale
As part of the pilot, we developed standardised GP specific data protection paperwork. This included Data Protection Agreements, Data Sharing Agreements and Data Protection Impact Assessments. These documents were reviewed and approved by all four regional GP Data Protection Officers. This work now means practices can sign up at pace and scale across the region.
Minimal impact on practices
The pilot showed that the impact on GP workload was low.
One GP involved in the pilot, Dr Farzan Kamali from Branch End Surgery, said:
“We were initially concerned about the impact on our practice - especially patient complaints, data sharing risks, and demands on our admin team. But the process was straightforward and trouble free. The programme team were on hand throughout, and the planning and communication made a real difference. Any questions were quickly picked up by the support line, which helped reassure both staff and patients.”
Practices were also chosen to reflect different clinical systems, including EMIS and TPP SystmOne, helping ensure the approach works across settings.
Regional at scale sharing
Following the success of the pilot, 229 GP practices across the North East and North Cumbria have agreed to join the SDE so far.
This marks a major step forward in enabling safe, secure use of health and care data to support research and improve care - while keeping patient choice at the centre.
GP practices interested in signing up can contact the GNCR team or visit the GP webpage for more information.