Number of patients with smart phones returned after blanket restriction in Ridgeway Unit.

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust did not have the information requested.

Dear Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust,

During Covid some patients in Ridgeway Secure Service were allowed a smart phone on completion of a “Safety on Line” course.

12 months later a blanket restriction was imposed and all phones were removed. It has now been agreed that individual risk assessments should take place.

I would like the following questions answered
How many patients during Covid were give access to a smart phone and completed the “Safety on Line” course?
How many of those patients have now had an individual risk assessment?
Of those patients how many have had their phones returned for two hours a day?

Yours faithfully,
Sheena B Foster

CHAMBERLAIN, Susan (TEES, ESK AND WEAR VALLEYS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Good Afternoon Sheena

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

How many patients during Covid were given access to a smart phone and completed the “Safety on Line” course? We issued 58 devices to Ridgeway

The other two questions that have been asked, we have no input on that and this would be handled by the location themselves. We wouldn’t of issued these devices to the patient, we would of issued them to the wards and then they would have been distributed once they had worked through their internal processes. The only people that would know that is the managers and senior managers at Roseberry Park.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can support you with any further information.

If you have any concerns about the way your request has been handled; the response received, or any ‘exemption’ decision you should, in the first instance contact me to try to resolve them. If you are not happy with the outcome you can write to our Personal Assistant at the address below and make a request for an internal review.

Susan Chamberlain
Personal Assistant
Corporate Affairs & Involvement
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust West Park Hospital Edward Pease Way Darlington DL2 2TS
Email – [email address]

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can then write to the Information Commissioner:

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

In line with the Information Commissioner’s directive on the disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 your request will form part of our disclosure record. Therefore a version of our response which will protect your anonymity will be posted on the Trust’s website under the Publication Scheme.

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FOI (TEES, ESK AND WEAR VALLEYS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Good Afternoon Sheena

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

How many patients during Covid were given access to a smart phone and completed the “Safety on Line” course? We issued 58 devices to Ridgeway

The other two questions that have been asked, we have no input on that and this would be handled by the location themselves. We wouldn’t of issued these devices to the patient, we would of issued them to the wards and then they would have been distributed once they had worked through their internal processes. The only people that would know that is the managers and senior managers at Roseberry Park.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can support you with any further information.

If you have any concerns about the way your request has been handled; the response received, or any ‘exemption’ decision you should, in the first instance contact me to try to resolve them. If you are not happy with the outcome you can write to our Personal Assistant at the address below and make a request for an internal review.

Susan Chamberlain
Personal Assistant
Corporate Affairs & Involvement
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust West Park Hospital Edward Pease Way Darlington DL2 2TS Email – [email address]

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can then write to the Information Commissioner:

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

In line with the Information Commissioner’s directive on the disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 your request will form part of our disclosure record. Therefore a version of our response which will protect your anonymity will be posted on the Trust’s website under the Publication Scheme.

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Sheena B Foster

Dear FOI (TEES, ESK AND WEAR VALLEYS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST),

Thank you for your response but unfortunately you haven’t answered my question and your response suggests you have limited knowledge of how patients had access to smart phones during Covid.

I did not ask for the number of smartphones given to the Ridgeway unit by the Trust, I asked for the number of patients who had access to a smart phone during Covid. This should have included all patients who own their own phones and patients who were allowed to have a smartphone for the first time and a family member may have bought one for them. In order to use a smart phone for the first time they would also have to have passed a ‘safety on line’ course. Ordinarily patients are not allowed to use their phone on the wards but Covid meant that this changed.

In order to answer this question you will have to have a conversation with the Ridgeway Unit.

Yours sincerely,

Sheena B Foster

FOI (TEES, ESK AND WEAR VALLEYS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST), Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Good Morning Sheena,

Thank you for your further enquiry under the Freedom of Information Request

I am sorry that you feel that we had not responded to your questions; by way of a further response I can advise that this information is not something that we hold centrally and this information did change daily dependent upon the individual patient risks throughout the pandemic and the information was captured within the individual patient records. Unfortunately to obtain the information you have requested will take a significant length of time (greater than 18 hours) to manually obtain this information for you.

If you have any concerns about the way your request has been handled; the response received, or any ‘exemption’ decision you should, in the first instance contact me to try to resolve them. If you are not happy with the outcome you can write to our Personal Assistant at the address below and make a request for an internal review.

Susan Chamberlain
Personal Assistant
Corporate Affairs & Involvement
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust West Park Hospital Edward Pease Way Darlington DL2 2TS Email – [email address]

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you can then write to the Information Commissioner:

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

In line with the Information Commissioner’s directive on the disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 your request will form part of our disclosure record. Therefore a version of our response which will protect your anonymity will be posted on the Trust’s website under the Publication Scheme.

Kind Regards
Emma Haimes

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