Hospital Chaplaincy Procedures

The request was partially successful.

Dear Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust,

I would like to request the following information on standards, policies and procedures relating to hospital chaplains in your Trust.

Could you please:

1. tell me whether policies or procedures exist to:

a. establish whether a patient admitted to any of your hospitals does or does not wish to receive contact from a hospital chaplain

b. ensure that patients (or their visitors, next-of-kin etc.) do not received unsolicited contact from chaplains

c. safeguard patients’ personal and medical data such that hospital chaplains by default do not have access to it

d. ensure that hospital chaplains, when given access to patient data, do not share any of it with third parties

If you answered yes to any of the above, please could you provide me with copies of the relevant policies or procedures

2. outline your approach for monitoring adherence to the policies and procedures above

3. provide me with a summary of the results of this monitoring for the last five years, including rates of compliance with the policies and procedures, and severity of any non-compliance events

4. provide me with details of any action taken in respect of any non-compliance identified (e.g. tightening of procedures, disciplinary action – in the latter case, taking care not to disclose any personal information)

Please could you release this information in electronic form by email via this WhatDoTheyKnow request.

Yours faithfully,

Susan Davis

Foxall-Rush Clare,

Dear Ms Davis,
We are in receipt of your request for information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. I will be dealing with the request and will endeavour to respond to you for 23rd April 2013.

Should you have any queries in the meantime then please do not hesitate to contact me.

With thanks
Clare Foxall-Rush
Deputy Trust Secretary
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and confidential. If you have received it in error you must not use, copy, disclose or store the information contained within this email or attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by using the reply function and permanently delete what you have received.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust.
Computer viruses can be transmitted by email. Messages and any attached files will have been checked with virus detection software before transmission, however we advise you to check emails and any attachments for the presence of viruses as neither the Trust nor the sender accept responsibility for any viruses transmitted by this email and/or any attachments.
Confidentiality
The information contained in an email may be subject to disclosure as required by law including under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998. Unless the information requested is legally exempt from disclosure, we cannot guarantee that we will not provide the whole or part of an email to a third party making a request for information about the content of the email.
Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. E-mails sent via the Internet could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send material to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, partner organisations or the NHS in general.
The principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Caldicott guidelines should be adhered to at all times. NB. Emails containing patient identifiable data must be exchanged using the encrypted National NHS Mail email service (NHSnet).
Incoming and outgoing email messages may be monitored in accordance with the Telecommunications Regulations 2000 and Human Rights Act 2000.

Please note that I do not monitor my nhs.net account.  If you wish to send a secure email then please notify me using this address.

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Foxall-Rush Clare,

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Davis,
Please find attached our organisational response to your request for information.

I trust that this is the information which you are seeking but should you have any further queries then please do not hesitate to contact me.

With thanks

Clare Foxall-Rush
Deputy Trust Secretary
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust
This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and confidential. If you have received it in error you must not use, copy, disclose or store the information contained within this email or attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by using the reply function and permanently delete what you have received.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust.
Computer viruses can be transmitted by email. Messages and any attached files will have been checked with virus detection software before transmission, however we advise you to check emails and any attachments for the presence of viruses as neither the Trust nor the sender accept responsibility for any viruses transmitted by this email and/or any attachments.
Confidentiality
The information contained in an email may be subject to disclosure as required by law including under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998. Unless the information requested is legally exempt from disclosure, we cannot guarantee that we will not provide the whole or part of an email to a third party making a request for information about the content of the email.
Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. E-mails sent via the Internet could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send material to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, partner organisations or the NHS in general.
The principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Caldicott guidelines should be adhered to at all times. NB. Emails containing patient identifiable data must be exchanged using the encrypted National NHS Mail email service (NHSnet).
Incoming and outgoing email messages may be monitored in accordance with the Telecommunications Regulations 2000 and Human Rights Act 2000.

Please note that I do not monitor my nhs.net account.  If you wish to send a secure email then please notify me using this address.

show quoted sections