Bank / Locum rate for junior doctors

Dear Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust,

Please clearly and carefully inform me of your bank (internal bank) and locum (external agency) rates (per hour) for junior doctors across the following groups and working times:

F1 - Day & out of hours
F2 - Day & out of hours
Core trainee - Day & out of hours
Specialist trainee (registrar) - Day & out of hours

Please detail clearly where applicable if out of hours rates are different what times and days are counted as 'out of hours'. If these rates are different per department (medicine, surgery, emergency care) please detail this clearly. If these rates are different for high-demand areas (usually A&E) please also detail where this differs. If these rates are escalated on routine occasion (more than once per quarter) please detail what the rates are usually escalated to and who this decision needs to be made by.

Regarding any possible refusals of this request. I suspect that simply contacting your rota co-ordinators for the relevant departments would find you all of the information I have asked for in the space of less than an hour. Thus I do not expect this request to exceed the cost limit £450. This information is not sensitive nor is the request vexatious.

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Burton

Dear Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Bank / Locum rate for junior doctors'.

I note your reply stating that you cannot answer this information due to commercial interests. However, I am inclined to disagree with your reasoning. Firstly - I am only asking about your internal rates for junior doctor pay within the trust, I am not asking about any external rates paid to agency workers as such there are no external commercial interests. Secondly, I assume these rates are standardised across your trust and thus I do not expect you publishing these rates paid to junior doctors is likely to cause adverse competition within your trust. Furthermore, other trusts I have sent this request to have answered without hesitation or concern for commercial interests (please see link here - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...). Lastly, ICO guidance states you as an authority must show that the information would be or is likely to be prejudicial to the commercial activities of you as a trust - in your response you have not given any reasoning as to why publishing these internal rates would be commercial prejudicial.

As such I politely request you reconsider this request or more clearly state why you believe you cannot provide this information. As a tax-payer, I believe it is only fair we know how our finances are being spent within the NHS. I am also

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Burton

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Burton

Dear FOI (WALSALL HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST),

Further to my above message. I have now received another response from a trust within your ICS namely the Dudley Group NHS foundation trust (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...). As previously stated I believe there is now a significant burden of proof upon yourselves to demonstrate how providing this information could prejudice your commercial interests when clearly two neighbouring trusts have not felt this is the case. I eagerly await your response.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Burton