Guidelines re Waiting times in clinic waiting rooms

Department of Health and Social Care did not have the information requested.

Dear Department of Health,

Please provide the following information or point me to where I can access it directly.

1) How long it is generally considered acceptable for outpatient clinics to run behind; that is, how long a patient should have to wait past their appointment time on attendance at a clinic before being "seen" for their appointment.

2) What measures Trusts are required to put in to monitor and manage waiting times; and how compliance with these requrirements is monitored and inspected.

3) What actions or measures Trusts are required to undertake to ensure the comfort of patients during periods waiting in waiting rooms for their clinic appointment; including any requirements to keep patients informed as to the status (expected waiting time etc.); and what good practise guidelines are in place for this.

4) What measures you would expect to be undertaken to deal with a weekly consultant-led clinic which routinely overruns significantly (an hour or two or more) and is well known by patients and staff to do so

5) What rights patients who attend such clinics have to request or insist on being moved or referred to other clinics that have better timekeeping.

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Department of Health and Social Care

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Department of Health and Social Care

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Department of Health,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health's handling of my FOI request 'Guidelines re Waiting times in clinic waiting rooms'.

The response does not deal with my original questions 2, 3, 4 or 5

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

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Department of Health and Social Care

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Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE00000544618

Dear Mr Paulley,

Thank you for your further email of 21 September to the Department of
Health about waiting times in clinics. I have been asked to reply.

You asked for this information citing the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). However, FOIA only applies to recorded information such as paper
or electronic archive material, and does not cover requests for the
Department's policies. We therefore considered that your request fell
outside the scope of FOIA, and responded as general Departmental
correspondence.

For this reason, we will not be conducting an internal review of this
request.

I should explain that there is little that I can add to my first response.
The Department has not produced any guidelines, and this is a matter for
local NHS organisations to address. You may therefore wish to contact the
local Patient Advice and Liaison Service, as my previous reply suggested.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Spencer
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health

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