Cardiac ultrasound

The request was successful.

Dear Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust,

I would be pleased if you can help with the following enquiry in relation to echocardiography.

1. Can patients obtain copies of their own scans and in what format are surviving archived scans stored ?

2. Does the Trust have a policy for ensuring that scans stored in one format will still be accessible and copyable when a new format becomes the working standard for storing echocardiograms ?

3. In particular, do you have the facility to extract and copy to a different format, from magnetic optical 5.25inch disks ? and in relation to this would you assist another hospital with such a need they found themselves without the capacity to read and make a copy of a scan from such a disk ?

4. If a patient requested a copy of a scan presently archived in a format (for example magnetic optical disk) and if you could not meet their wish for a copy because of a lack of hardware or software, would you refuse the request or is there a protocol or mechanism you would use, such as a way of asking other hospitals or a solution known and integral to the NHS on a national basis whereby either a particular unit is available for dealing with such technical obstacles ? and if so please provide as much detail about such solutions as possible.

5. Also, would you purchase disk reading software/hardware to ensure old format scans could be read and copied if a patient requested a copy of a surviving scan ?

6. If a person, having obtained a copy of their own scan having had the examination within your own trust, wanted to ask questions about their echocardiogram, would the trust facilitate such queries by making a person with the appropriate skill, example cardiac technicians/other clinical staff with echocardiography training,
available to answer such by appointment ?

7. Can the Trust clarify the reasons why one would archive cardiac ultrasound, is this primarily for potential (albeit rare) need for clinical reevaluation, perhaps comparing cardiac structure/functional change over time/ potential medico legal reasons ? The author of this request has been advised that in practice cardiac ultrasound is summarised in a paper report which suffices for clinicians purposes and so wonders why archive ?

Yours faithfully,

A Brown

Mayo Sam,

3 Attachments

Mr Brown

 

I acknowledge receipt by Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust of your
request under the Freedom of Information Act following on from FOI_1066
and you can expect the Trust’s reply on or by 10/05/13.

 

Thanks

 

 

Samantha Mayo

Project Administrator, FOI & Document Control Officer

Direct Line: 01480 364908

 

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Papworth Everard | Cambridge | CB23 3RE | Telephone: 01480 830541

[1]www.papworthhospital.nhs.uk | A member of Cambridge University Health
Partners

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Mayo Sam,

4 Attachments

Please find attached the Trusts response to your FOI request.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Samantha Mayo

Project Administrator, FOI & Document Control Officer

Direct Line: 01480 364908

 

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Papworth Everard | Cambridge | CB23 3RE | Telephone: 01480 830541

[1]www.papworthhospital.nhs.uk | A member of Cambridge University Health
Partners

If you believe in organ donation, register now
at: [2]www.organdonation.nhs.uk

[3]Facebook[4]Twitter[5]linkedin

 

 

------------NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.papworthhospital.nhs.uk/
2. https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/
3. https://www.facebook.com/PapworthHospital
4. https://twitter.com/PapworthHosp
5. http://www.linkedin.com/company/papworth...