Make and explore Freedom of Information requests
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid for FOI purposes (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this requestAct on what you've learnt
Similar requests
Chemotherapy
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Robert Clark 10 February 2009
Sharing of patient lists / ward lists with religious groups
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Anders Jacobsen 31 March 2009
Use of the Trust's funds on Chaplaincy
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Anders Jacobsen 7 April 2009
Febrile Neutropenia
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Robert Clark 21 January 2009
Hand Hygiene
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by mark cole 22 October 2009
Pre-registration Pharmacist Training Admission Statistics
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by M Nunnerly 12 March 2012
Albany Practice CMACE report
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Charlie 11 December 2009
Access to records.
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by Paul Gaffney 25 November 2009
Private patient activity income request FOI
To King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust by eg05 4 October 2009
Contract with Hospicom for Bedside Services
Peter Collingbourne made this Freedom of Information request to King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The request was partially successful.
From: Peter Collingbourne
11 December 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please disclose a copy of the contract your Trust holds with
Hospital Telecommunication Services Ltd for the provision of
bedside telephone and television services, including all annexes,
appendices, schedules, technical manuals and other such
supplementary information.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Collingbourne
From: Nicholls, Fiona
12 January 2009
Dear Mr Collingbourne
It is our practice to send encrypted documents via email. In order that
you can open the response to your recent FoI request you will need the
relevant password. Please contact me with an email address not attached
to a public website to which I can send the password.
Thank you
Regards
Fiona Nicholls
FoI Lead
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
From: Nicholls, Fiona
12 January 2009
Dear Mr Collingbourne
Please find attached our response to your recent FoI request.
Regards
Fiona Nicholls
FoI Lead
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
020 3299 4489
From: Peter Collingbourne
12 January 2009
Dear Ms Nicholls,
Thank you for your email of 12 January refusing my request.
I do not believe that my request has been handled correctly, so I
would like to request an internal review. Please acknowledge
receipt of this email.
With regard to the exemption cited, I believe that the exemption
does not apply to all of the information I have requested. I can
accept that some information within the contract may be
legitimately withheld under section 43, however according to ICO
guidance much information from recent public sector contracts
should be made available, especially if they are from after 2005,
the start date of the FOIA - see ICO Awareness guidance 5 annexe -
public sector contracts [1]. OGC guidance entitled "FOI (Civil
Procurement) Policy and Guidance" [2] provides further guidance
regarding FOIA disclosure of public sector contractual information.
Please note that the ICO and Information Tribunal have repeatedly
held that at least some, and usually most, information contained
within a contract does not fall under the section 43 exemption.
Please see ICO Decision Notices FS50131138, FS50083381, FS50094891,
and Information Tribunal decisions Department of Health v
Information Commissioner (EA/2008/0018), John Connor Press
Associates Limited v The Information Commissioner (EA/2005/0005).
With regard to the public interest, there is a general public
interest in knowing the terms under which a public authority has
entered a relationship on the public's behalf with a commercial
organisation. In this particular case, firms which contract with
NHS trusts to provide bedside telephone and television services
have been controversial due to the high prices charged to patients,
and the monopoly position they occupy within a particular hospital.
This increases the public interest in knowing the terms of their
contracts.
Thank you for your consideration of this appeal.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Collingbourne
[1]
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
[2]
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/OGC_FOI_...
From: Nicholls, Fiona
15 January 2009
Dear Mr Collingbourne
Please see the attached letter.
Regards
Fiona Nicholls
FoI Lead
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
From: Nicholls, Fiona
9 February 2009
Dear Mr Collingbourne
Please find attached a letter concerning the above.
Regards
Fiona Nicholls
FoI Lead
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
From: Peter Collingbourne
10 February 2009
Dear Ms Nicholls,
Thank you for your letter detailing the outcome of my internal
review. I would prefer to receive this document electronically, so
before I give you my postal address would you first be able to let
me know whether the document can be scanned and emailed.
You have stated:
"I have also removed a list of telephone numbers at the Trust as it
would be not be in the public interest for patient telephone
numbers to be made publicly available."
Which exemption are you claiming for withholding this information
please?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Collingbourne
From: Nicholls, Fiona
10 February 2009
I will be out of the office until Tuesday 10th February, please contact
Kylie Sanders on x3392 or Erin Cadieux on x3270 if what you wish to
discuss is urgent.
From: Sanders, Kylie
11 February 2009
Good Afternoon Mr Collingbourne,
Please find attached a response to your email.
Many Thanks
Kylie Sanders
Secretary to Operations
King's College Hospital NHS Trust
Denmark Hill
London
SE5 9RS
Days worked: Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm
Tel: 020 3299 3392
From: Helliwell, Clare
18 February 2009
Good Afternoon,
In regards to your recent Freedom of Information review request you will
shortly receive an email with documents attached which contain our
response. To access this document you will need the following password:
Freedom327
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many Thanks
Clare Helliwell
Information Officer
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
From: Helliwell, Clare
18 February 2009
NHS Wide Bedside Comm Ent.doc
2.7M
Download
View as HTML
Patient Call.doc
548K
Download
View as HTML
Response to the review.doc
91K
Download
View as HTML
Good Afternoon,
We have completed our response to your request for a review dated 12^th
January 2009. Please find the documents attached.
The password to open these documents has been sent in a separate email.
Yours sincerely,
Clare Helliwell
Information Officer
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
From: Peter Collingbourne
18 February 2009
Dear Ms Helliwell,
I have attempted to open the documents you have sent me.
Unfortunately I have been unable to do so, as I receive the
following message from my office software (OpenOffice.org):
"The encryption method used in this document is not supported. Only
Microsoft Office 97/2000 compatible password encryption is
supported."
Do you think you can send the documents again using Microsoft
Office 97/2000 compatible password encryption, or ideally with no
password at all?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Collingbourne
From: Helliwell, Clare
19 February 2009
NHS Wide Bedside Comm Ent RO.doc
2.7M
Download
View as HTML
Patient Call RO.doc
547K
Download
View as HTML
Response to the review RO.doc
91K
Download
View as HTML
Good morning,
I have attached unencrypted copies of the two contracts and letter to
this email. If you have any further difficulties, please do not hesitate
to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Clare Helliwell
show quoted sections
From: Peter Collingbourne
19 February 2009
Dear Ms Helliwell,
I am afraid I am still receiving the same error message when
attempting to open the files. Would it be possible to convert the
files into PDF format?
Yours sincerely,
Peter Collingbourne
From: Helliwell, Clare
19 February 2009
Patient Call RO.doc
544K
Download
View as HTML
NHS Wide Bedsite Comm Ent RO..doc
2.7M
Download
View as HTML
Response to the Review.doc
82K
Download
View as HTML
Hi Peter,
Try the copies of the documents that I have attached to this email.
Kind regards,
Clare Helliwell
show quoted sections
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Peter Collingbourne left an annotation (12 January 2009)
Mr Peter Collingbourne
Request-4708-54d0ad4e@whatdotheyknow.com
King.s College Hospital
Denmark Hill
London SE5 9RS
Tel: 020 3299 9000
Fax: 020 3299 3445
www.kch.nhs.uk
12 January 2009
Dear Mr Collingbourne
Re: Freedom of Information request
Further to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act) dated 11th December 2008, I am writing to confirm the information that the Trust does and does not hold. The text of your request is repeated below in bold, followed by our response:
Please disclose a copy of the contract your Trust holds with Hospital Telecommunication Services Ltd for the provision of bedside telephone and television services, including all annexes, appendices, schedules, technical manuals and other such supplementary information.
The Trust does hold this information.
The contract with Patient Call (Now called Hospital Telecommunication Services Ltd (HTS) or Hospicom) was provided under the government.s Bedside Entertainment Initiative. Targeted trusts, including this trust, were required to choose, one of three providers that had been selected by NHS Estates through a national procurement exercise.
King.s chose HTS as its provider. Although the Trust acts as the liaison with HTS, the contract was set up by NHS Estates and the service level agreement is between the user and HTS. More information about the service provided and related charges is available from HTS.
You can contact HTS at:
Unit 6, Atlantic Business Centre, Stirling Way, Borehamwood, Herts, WD6 2BT
Tel: 0871 666 4000 Fax: 0871 666 4040 email: info@hospicom.co.uk
Internet address: http://www.hospicom.co.uk
Apart from the above, the Trust considers that the information which it has is exempt information under section 43(2) of the 2000 Act as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of HTS in terms of its ability to participate effectively in a competitive market. This consideration has become especially pertinent in the current economic climate. In reaching this view, the Trust has considered ICO Awareness Guidance No.5
A Section 43 exemption is a qualified exemption. The Trust has a duty to disclose the requested information unless the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
The Trust has considered this question carefully. The Trust has concluded that, apart from the information given above and that which is already publicly available on the HTS website, there is minimal public interest in disclosing the contract with HTS.
The Trust has considered the effect that the disclosure of the information would be likely to have on HTS.s participation within competitive markets and hence the number of people it employs in the current economic slowdown. Having undertaken this balancing exercise, the Trust has concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the requested information.
For these reasons, therefore the Trust declines to provide the information which it holds which falls within the scope of your request for the disclosure of information under the 2000 Act.
Please let me know if you require more details or further clarification. You can find out more about the Act and other information resources released by the Trust on our website at: www.kch.nhs.uk
If you are dissatisfied with the Trust.s response, you may appeal to us in the first instance. For contact details and a copy of our FOI appeal policy, please see our website or email us at foi@kch.nhs.uk.
If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right under section 50 of the Act to apply to the Information Commissioner to seek resolution to the matter. Further details can be found on their website at www.ico.gov.uk
This document is copyright of King.s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Please note that the supply of information under the Freedom of Information Act does not give the applicant a right to re-publish or re-use the documents in a way that would infringe copyright. The Trust and any other party who may own information included in these materials are entitled to protect their copyright.
Yours sincerely,
Fiona Nicholls
FOI Lead
foi@kch.nhs.uk
Link to this