Screening and Treatment of Iron Deficiency anaemia

The request was refused by Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.

Dear Croydon Health Services NHS Trust,

I would like to request information regarding the screening and treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in patients listed for major elective blood loss surgery.

In the last 12 months available data, how many patients listed for major elective blood loss surgery were screened 6 weeks prior to the procedure for iron deficiency anaemia? How many patients were not?

Of the patients who were screened and anaemia was present had serum ferritin levels tested?

Of those patients diagnosed with iron-deficiency anaemia, how many were offered appropriate iron treatment?

Below are the OPCS codes to be considered when reviewing major elective blood loss surgery:
K453 W373 M022
K262 W383 L294
K255 W384 L601
H072 W374 L593
H333 Q074 L194
H071 Q075 L295
H336 W403 W371
H073 W402 W381
H074 M025 W941
M341 M021 W401
M343 M039

If at all possible, could you provide a break down for each answer by what CCG the patients came from?

Yours faithfully,

BEN HOLDSWORTH

foi (CROYDON HEALTH SERVICES NHS TRUST), Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Dear Ben

Thank you for your FOI request which is now being considered. Your reference number is: FOI 1999, and should be quoted in all your future correspondence relating to this request.

Your request for information may be delayed beyond the 20 working day statutory timeframe due to urgent operational responses to deal with Public Health priorities. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, we do remain committed to responding to your request and will respond as soon as we are able. Should our response to your request breach the statutory timeframe and you remain unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office and you can contact them at Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Further details of the ICO procedure and what they can investigate is available online at www.ico.gov.uk.

Kind regards

FOI & Policy Team
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

FOI (CROYDON HEALTH SERVICES NHS TRUST), Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Dear Ben

FOI : 1999 – Iron Deficiency Screening & Major Blood Loss Trauma

We write further to your request for information dated 16 March 2020 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We apologise for the delay in responding. Please find your request below together with our response:

Your request:

I would like to request information regarding the screening and treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in patients listed for major elective blood loss surgery.
• In the last 12 months available data, how many patients listed for major elective blood loss surgery were screened 6 weeks prior to the procedure for iron deficiency anaemia? How many patients were not?
• Of the patients who were screened and anaemia was present had serum ferritin levels tested?
• Of those patients diagnosed with iron-deficiency anaemia, how many were offered appropriate iron treatment?
• Below are the OPCS codes to be considered when reviewing major elective blood loss surgery:
K453 W373 M022
K262 W383 L294
K255 W384 L601
H072 W374 L593
H333 Q074 L194
H071 Q075 L295
H336 W403 W371
H073 W402 W381
H074 M025 W941
M341 M021 W401
M343 M039
• If at all possible, could you provide a break down for each answer by what CCG the patients came from?

Our Response:

We have considered your request. The information requested is exempt under S.12 of the Freedom of Information Act. S.12 is an exemption from a public authority’s obligation to comply with this request where the cost of compliance is estimated to exceed the appropriate limit. This is where staff time will exceed 18 hours. We do not hold central data on iron deficiency screening in relation to major blood loss surgery. In order to extract that information, individual patient records for all elective surgeries would have to be pulled, staff would then need to determine whether there had been major blood loss following such surgery, and then determine from individual patient records if there had in the prior 6 weeks been an iron deficiency test as well as what those test results showed. The Trust undertook over 2,400 inpatient operations and over 25,000 day case procedures in the 12 months prior to the date of your request.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research that you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder which must be expressly given. Please note that this letter and information included/attached may be published on our website as part of the Trust’s FOI Publication Log.

This concludes our response. We are sorry we are unable to provide the information you seek. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.

If you are unhappy with this response the Trust has a formal Complaints Procedure which you may use by writing to the Complaints and PALS team at the address above or by emailing them at [email address]. Further details of the complaints procedure are available on our website at www.croydonhealthservices.nhs.uk. If you remain unsatisfied you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Further details of this procedure can be found online at - https://ico.org.uk/.

Thank you for your interest in Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.

Kind regards

Information Governance
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Email: [email address]

show quoted sections