Melanoma Skin Cancer information

The request was partially successful.

Dear University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust,

Please could you provide the following information in relation to your delivery of care, for those patients newly diagnosed with Melanoma cancer at your Trust. Could you please provide this information in electronic format back to this email address.

If you could pass this to your ‘Skin Cancer Clinic’ or relevant department to complete, I would appreciate this.

1. Within your NHS Trust could you confirm what ‘follow up regime’ you normally provide for newly diagnosed patients by Melanoma Stage (IA-IIC) and the number of years (1 to 5) the follow up continues for, in line with your clinical protocols? To help with completion we have inserted a table below. Or please provide back in excel if easier.

|Melanoma Stage at diagnosis| |No. follow up visits in 1st Year | |No. follow up visits in 2nd Year | |No. follow up visits in 3rd Year | |No. follow up visits in 4th Year | |No. follow up visits in 5th Year |
lA
lB
llA
llB
llC

2. Could you please provide a copy of the latest service specification for your Melanoma skin cancer service at the Trust, which shows the care pathway that you provide? Normally found under ‘Schedule 2’ of the Standard contract in place, with your commissioner

3. Could you please confirm if you use any ‘send away dermatopathology services’ within your NHS Trust? A send away or referral service is one where the pathology work is contracted out to a third party laboratory. Yes or No

4. Could you please confirm for your Trust in 2018/19, the following numbers of newly diagnosed Melanoma skin cancer patients and the number of these who have received a subsequent Sentinel Lymph Node biopsy by Melanoma Stage?

To help with the completion, we have inserted a table below for ease.

| Stage | | Total Patients reviewed | | Total Sentinel lymph nodes completed |
ALL
IA
IB
IIA
IIB
IIC

Please note: To help with this question 4, the OPCS code for Sentinel lymph node is ‘O14.2 + ICD-10 code C43 Malignant melanoma of skin’, then supported by the cancer stage.

Thank you very much for your time and support on this matter and if any questions please do let me know.

Yours faithfully,

C.Tuson

FOI, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

Dear Sir/Madam

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 15^th April 2021
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)
regarding Melanoma

 

Your reference number is 024-2122 please quote this number on any
correspondence.

 

The University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust is committed to the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

However, the NHS is facing unprecedented challenges relating to the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at the current time.  Understandably, our
resources have been diverted to support our front-line colleagues who are
working tremendously hard to provide care for our patients, and to those
in need of our services.

 

We strive to be transparent and to work with an open culture.  But at this
time, whilst care of our patients and the safety of our staff takes
precedent, it is likely that responses to some requests for information
will be delayed.  We apologise for this position in advance, and will
endeavour to provide you with as much information as we can, as soon as we
are able.

 

The Information Commissioners Office has recognised the current situation
in the NHS

 

 

The FOI Act sets out a twenty working day timescale for requests to be
completed by. We will always try to complete your request within this
timeframe. We will let you know whether the Trust holds the information
you have requested, and we will contact you as soon as possible if we are
delayed in our response for some reason. If we require further information
from you or we need you to further explain your request before we can
continue to process it we will also contact you. 

 

Please note:

·         The Freedom of Information Act does not provide access to
personal records. This sits within Access to Medical Records.  They can be
contacted via Ministries Office [email address]

·         If we request any clarification from you to help us respond to
your request, the 20 working day deadline freezes until the requested
clarification has been received.

·         If we suspect that the request has come from a Pseudonym (false
name) we will request proof of identity before processing your request, as
provision of a Pseudonym invalidates a request.

 

The authority can combine related requests received within a period of 60
consecutive days from:

(section 12 exemption)

 

•              The same person or

•              People who appear to be acting in concert or in pursuance
of a campaign.

 

 

Yours,

 

Data, Security and Protection

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

 

 

 

 

Dear FOI,

I am still awaiting your response to my Freedom of Information request sent on 15th April 2021.
I appreciate that due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the process of identifying and gathering the information I have requested has taken longer than the 20 working days, but I would be grateful if you could at least update me on your timescales and when I can expect the information if you have it.

Kind regards
Carolyn

FOI, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

Dear Carolyn

Our apologises, we have been chasing this for a response and I have highlighted to my line manager who is also chasing. I have informed my manager of your email today and I fully expect my manager to escalate further.

Again, my apologises for the delay

Regards

DSP team

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FOI, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust

4 Attachments

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Please find the response to your FOI request attached

 

Many thanks,

 

DSP Team

University Hospitals of North Midlands

NHS Trust