Details regarding the use of Physician Associates
Dear Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust,
I am writing to request information regarding your use of Physician Associates.
1) How many Physician Associates are currently employed by your organisation?
2) Please provide copies of any policies regarding physician associates in your organisation. For example, policies regarding the scope of practice, clinical procedures, governance, supervision and appraisal processes for physician associates.
3) Please provide details of any patient safety incidents (reported via Datix or other internal patient safety reporting systems) where the clinician involved was a Physician Associate. Where possible, please include a breakdown of these incidents by year, severity and categorisation (e.g., department, nature of the incident, patient harm, outcome, organisational response etc).
Yours faithfully,
Michael Bridger
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your email.
Your request is being processed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act and will be answered within twenty working days.
If you have any requirements regarding the format any information should be supplied in e.g. the language to be used, audio, large print and so on, then please let us know.
If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact us quoting the reference number above.
Kind Regards,
Kelly Rickards
Information Governance Officer (IGO)
Contactable via email - MS Teams – Ext.5701
Information Governance Department
Building 20, New Manor Court
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, Walsall Manor Hospital, Moat Road, Walsall West-Midlands, WS2 9PS.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your email requesting information relating to Details regarding the use of Physician Associates.
Your request is being processed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act and will be answered within twenty working days.
If you have any requirements regarding the format any information should be supplied in e.g. the language to be used, audio, large print and so on, then please let us know.
If you have any queries about this request, do not hesitate to contact us quoting the reference number above.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information / Information Governance
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Walsall Manor Hospital
Tel: 01922 721172 (ext. 5701)
Email: [Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust request email]
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. We are pleased to attach our response to your request.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information / Information Governance
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Tel: 01922 721172 (ext. 5701)
Email: [Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust request email]
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 'Details regarding the use of Physician Associates'.
You have not responded to part 1 or part 2 of my original request and have only given reasons for refusing part 3.
I request your organisation respond to part 1 and part 2 of my request, and I will submit an amended part 3 request.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Bridger
Dear FOI (WALSALL HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST),
I understand from your reply that complying with part 3 of my request exceeds the appropriate limit set out under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, due to the estimated substantial manual effort required for data retrieval and analysis.
I appreciate the Trust's position and the clear explanation provided regarding the constraints related to processing my request. In light of your feedback and in accordance with the advice to narrow or refocus my request, I would like to amend my initial inquiry.
Understanding the challenges associated with manually reviewing and indexing each report, I propose to adjust my request to reduce the scope and, hopefully, the associated workload:
Could you provide a summary or aggregate data on the number of patient safety incidents involving Physician Associates, without a detailed breakdown by year, severity, and categorisation? A total figure or any high-level insights the Trust might already have compiled would be highly valuable. Your incident reporting system will allow you to electronically search for this data - either using a free text search (e.g. for PA/Physician Associate).
Alternatively, if any summary reports or analyses have already been conducted on incidents involving Physician Associates that do not require individual report retrieval or indexing, could such documents be shared?
I hope these adjustments will enable the Trust to provide the information within the appropriate limit. My aim is to understand the general involvement of Physician Associates in patient safety incidents, and I am willing to work within the constraints you face to receive any information that can be provided without exceeding the established cost threshold.
Please consider this amended request as a new inquiry under the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Bridger
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your email requesting information relating to Physician Associates in patient safety incidents.
Your request is being processed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act and will be answered within twenty working days.
If you have any requirements regarding the format any information should be supplied in e.g. the language to be used, audio, large print and so on, then please let us know.
If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact us quoting the reference number above.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information / Information Governance
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Walsall Manor Hospital
Tel: 01922 721172 (ext. 5701)
Email: [Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust request email]
Dear Mr Bridger
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a partial response to any FOI as we have been informed that it is bad practice by the ICO to assume that you only require a response to the questions we can answer.
We can as previously mentioned, respond to questions one and two. Now we have written confirmation that you are happy for us to respond the two questions please see our response attached.
Should you have any questions please let us know.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information / Information Governance
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Tel: 01922 721172 (ext. 5701)
Email: [Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust request email]
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. We are pleased to attach our response to your request.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
Freedom of Information / Information Governance
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Tel: 01922 721172 (ext. 5701)
Email: [Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust request email]
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