Critical report
Dear East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust,
I understand that a report, critical of your Trust has been compiled.
This relates to the decision to downgrade the seriousness of some 999 calls as part of something I think is known as "AMPDS". This would include calls to people "choking" etc.
This could obviously have resulted in what would appear to be improved response times to the most serious of 999 calls as you stopped classifying many as such.
Can you tell me:
Who wrote this report?
When was it delivered to the Trust?
Which categories of 999 calls were downgraded?
The names of those responsible for changing the categories of these calls?
Can you produce this report in full, either on here or on your own website so the public will know what has been going on?
Yours faithfully,
J Lowe
Dear J Lowe
Thank you for your email dated 20th May 2014 where you requested information regarding the East of England Ambulance Service.
Your request will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and we will respond to you within twenty working days. Your request has been allocated the following reference: F17988 and I would be grateful if you could quote this reference in any future correspondence with the Trust.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Dear J Lowe
In order that the Trust can process your request fully, please could you supply me with the name and date of the report you are referring to?
Once we have this information we will continue to process your request.
Kind regards
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
I don't know the actual name of the report or the precise date it was given to the Trust hence my enquiry.
I think from my original request it should be fairly obvious to the Trust what it relates to though and I wouldn't imagine it was very long ago.
Are you denying any sort of investigation was carried out into this potentially serious matter?
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
As you haven't denied the existence of this report, I believe time is up by law now.
Kindly let me (and everyone else) have this information and access to the report
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear J Lowe
Further to your request dated 20th May 2014, as the Trust intends to publish this document we will not be releasing it here under exemption s.22 of the Freedom of Information Act. The Trust aims to publish this document by the end of July, and once done we will send you a link to this report for your information.
I am obliged to advise you that if you are dissatisfied with the Trust’s response to your request you have a right to complain to the Trust and should set out your concerns to the Freedom of Information Officer, EEAST, Hospital Approach, Broomfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 7WS or by email to [East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust request email]. If you remain dissatisfied following this, you have a right under Section 50 of the FOIA to seek a determination from the Information Commissioner on whether the Act has been properly applied by the Trust. For more information, please see www.ico.gov.uk.
The Trust is always looking at ways to improve our responses to Freedom of Information requests. If you wish to provide feedback to the Trust on how we have dealt with your request, please follow this link to complete a short survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PLJZ6C9
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.
Kind regards
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
Unfortunately I have noted how your Trust does not seem to keep to timescales so I believe you should publish it now. You failed to even respond to my request wanting to know if you were denying the existence of the report. Yet more timewasting.
Why are you waiting? Is there something particularly damaging in it and will the delay you are trying to impose potentially cause more harm to patients?
There is also nothing to stop you answering my first 4 points in the meantime and I request that you do so without any further delay.
Also, can you tell me the name of this particular report?
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
Again I am going to request you publish this report in full and without any further delay.
I also want to know what immediate actions you took upon receiving the report. Kindly list those.
Should it later transpire that you failed to act in a timely manner and the delay in releasing this report has caused more harm to patients then I believe those at the most senior level in your Trust should be held culpable
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear J Lowe
The Trust is unable to release this report to you immediately as the investigation is still on-going, until this is completed the Trust is unable to publish the report. Under the Freedom of Information Act a public organisation is entitled to withhold the release of information it intends to publish. As stated in our previous response we do intend to publish this report once completed, this should contain all of the information you have requested, including the name of the report.
In relation to our query concerning our denying the existence of such a report, it was felt that by stating that we intend to release the report that this alone was confirmation that such a report exists, albeit unfinished at present.
Once the report in question is published a link to this document will be sent to you.
Kind regards
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
I assumed you already had the finished report.
I, and no doubt many others look forward to reading it and to see who was responsible and who also knew about the decision that was taken.
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
We are now almost at the end of July - the time by which you said you would publish the report and claimed an exemption under the FOI act for refusing to do so.
I want to know exactly when you are going to publish it. No more delaying tactics.
Also, I want to see the original report that was compiled by someone outside this Trust. Can you confirm that this was sent to you sometime ago, when that was and that the delay now is caused by your response to it?
Hopefully this isn't to allow for yet more "spin".
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear J Lowe
Thank you for your email.
Just to clarify, there is only one report, the Trust commissioned an external investigator to complete this investigation.
Unfortunately this report is still not complete as the investigation is not concluded and the external investigator is in discussions with the Commissioners to ensure that the report covers all aspects. Until the report has been agreed with the Commissioners (as it is not the Trust who approves the final version of this Serious Incident report), we simply cannot release it. When we wrote our previous response we had hoped the report would be available to the public this month, unfortunately it is now clear that this will not be the case. As soon as we are able, once the report has been approved by the Commissioners, we will be releasing this report to the public.
I hope that the above has clarified the process for you, and has explained the reason behind the delay in the release of the report.
On a final point, the exemption used by the Trust (s.22), simply states that we must have an intention to publish in order to use this exemption, despite the delay this is still our intention.
Kind regards
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
What is the latest re, the report as almost another 6 weeks has passed since you said you intended to publish it? It is also now nearly 4 months since I first enquired about it.
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
I note that you have not replied. Nor have you produced the report. You claimed an exemption under the foi act as you said you would be producing the report but have not done so. Kindly do so without any further delay.
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
Still absolutely no sign of this report or even a response from you.
Can you tell me why not?
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
I am still waiting for a link to the published report.
Kindly note I don't want a link to the summary you put out. I wish to see the actual report as you said you were going to do.
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear East of England Ambulance Service
I'm still waiting for this report.
Yours sincerely,
J Lowe
Dear J Lowe
Further to your email, the Trust has published this report, which can be accessed here: http://www.eastamb.nhs.uk/FOI%20Docs/Ser.... Also, as requested, please find attached a PDF version of this report.
I am obliged to advise you that if you are dissatisfied with the Trust’s response to your request you have a right to complain to the Trust and should set out your concerns to the Freedom of Information Officer, EEAST, Hospital Approach, Broomfield, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 7WS or by email to [East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust request email]. If you remain dissatisfied following this, you have a right under Section 50 of the FOIA to seek a determination from the Information Commissioner on whether the Act has been properly applied by the Trust. For more information, please see www.ico.gov.uk.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.
Kind regards
FoI Officer
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
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