Freedom of Information Act 2000 –Ref No: 19-332

Thank you for your request for Trust information under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Team is currently attending to your request. A member of the team will respond within the statutory timescale which is currently 20 working days.

If applicable we will inform you if any of your requested information is exempt from release along with any fee required. We may require further detail from you to assist us in searching for the information you have requested. You may therefore be contacted in due course if it is necessary to clarify any part of your request.

If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request please do not hesitate to contact us quoting the reference number above.

Kind Regards

Freedom of Information Assistant

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Kendrick Wing, Warrington Hospital, WA5 1QG

Email: [email address]

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Dear Sir/Madam  

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Ref No: 19-332

Response to request dated 06/08/2019 made under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000

Questions and Response:

I am writing regarding NHS My Choice, a service patients can use to pay
for low priority surgical procedures.

For clarity,

WHH My Choice is a self-pay service which can be accessed by patients who
do not meet the ‘Criteria Based Clinical Treatments’ policy (formerly
procedures of low clinical priority) of NHS Commissioners (NHS Warrington
CCG, NHS Halton CCG, NHS St Helen’s CCG and NHS Knowsley CCG) ie those who
have been denied procedures on the NHS at a particular time.  A copy of
this policy is attached for ease of reference.  My Choice patients are
treated as part of this Trust’s normal elective programme, there are no
special privileges and they simply occupy a slot on a scheduled list. 
There are no private rooms and they will join the same waiting list as
other NHS patients.

I am requesting:

1. All minutes and documentation for meetings, and copies of emails,
regarding My Choice, going back to its initial proposition and including
any plans to expand the scheme.

1A We can confirm that we do hold some of this information.  Please find
attached:

Discussions about the My Choice Programme took place within our Trust
Board, the Quality Assurance sub-committee and the Trust’s Council of
Governors as listed.

June 2018 July 2018 Aug 2018 May 2019
27.6.19 3.7.18 16.8.18 16.5.19

Trust Board Quality Assurance Council of Governors Council of
Committee Governors
Part 2
  25.7.19    

Trust Board

Part 2

Ref the provision of emails

Providing any additional information requested would breach the upper cost
limit for FOI requests. Compiling the information which you requested will
exceed the appropriate cost limit referred to in section 12 (1) of the
2000 Act. Under Section 4 of the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations the Trust can take
account of the costs we reasonably expect to incur in relation to the
request in:

(b) Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,

(c) Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and

(d) Extracting the information from a document containing it.

The costs attributable to the time staff will take to carry out the
activities mentioned above can be calculated at a rate of £25.00 per
person per hour. Please let us know if you wish us to continue and we will
provide a cost estimate for you.

2. The names of those involved in proposing and setting up the scheme, and
the names of the person or persons with overall responsibility for the
project.

The My Choice programme was collectively approved by the Trust Board on
(date/s), details of the Trust Board members can be found here:
[1]https://whh.nhs.uk/about-us/how-we-work-...

3. Money taken under the My Choice scheme, numbers of operations carried
out and the cost per operation.

£0 - There have been no procedures carried out via My Choice at WHH.

4. Statistics pertaining to the socioeconomic background of patients who
have accessed the scheme and paid for their own treatment (e.g. determined
from their postcode, declared racial background if recorded, age).

We do not hold this information, see (3) above.

5. Copies of the full and complete evidence used to set the prices set out
in the My Choice prices document available on the website.

For clarity, the MY Choice list of procedures mirrors those procedures no
longer funded by the 4 commissioning groups – see the policy attached.

We can confirm that we do hold this information, however it is the
reasonable opinion of the Director of Finance and Commercial Development
(‘qualified person’) that this is exempt information under Section 36c of
the Freedom of Information Act  as its disclosure would otherwise
prejudice, or would be likely otherwise to prejudice, the effective
conduct of public affairs.

6. Complete statistics for the history of low priority surgical
procedures: the operations on this list going back to the inception of the
CCG and including the present date.

We do not hold this information.

This Trust is a provider of services, and does not determine which
procedures are considered ‘low priority’  this is the role of NHS
commissioners.  Please contact, in the first instance, NHS Warrington CCG,
link available here:
[2]https://www.warringtonccg.nhs.uk/Images/...

7. Details of profit or loss made by the CCG specifically under the My
Choice scheme.

We do not hold this information, please contact NHS Warrington CCG as per
(6) above

8. Details of the average waiting list times for the low priority
operations offered by My Choice, for two years prior to the inception of
My Choice and up to and including the present day.

This information is publicly available here:
[3]https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/st...

If you are dissatisfied with the way your request for information has been
handled you can contact the Patient Experience Team lead to request a
review by writing to:

Patient Experience Team, Kendrick Wing, Warrington Hospital, Lovely Lane,
Warrington, WA5 1QG. 

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of this internal review you can
submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You can do
this by writing to: 

FOI / EIR Complaints Resolution, Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Alternatively you can complete an electronic complaints form and submit it
to the Information Commissioner’s Office via email. I have included a link
below for your convenience which explains how to complain to the
Information Commissioner’s Office.

[4]https://ico.org.uk/

Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005

The supply of information under the Freedom of Information Act is intended
to be for personal use only and does not automatically give the recipient
the right to commercially re-use it, for example, the right to publish it
or make it available to a wider audience [SI 2005 No: 1515 4(1)].

The Trust provides information under the Freedom of Information Act in
line with the template [5]Open Government Licence for public sector
information. Should you wish to re-use any information in line with this
Licence then you are not required to take any further action.

The Open Government Licence allows you to re-use information freely and
flexibly, with only a few conditions. If you wish to re-use information
outside of the Licence terms then please inform the Trust as unauthorised
re-use may be in breach of copyright law.

FOI Application Satisfaction Survey

It is important to the Trust that you are satisfied with the way that your
request was handled. Please find a link to our Freedom of Information
satisfaction survey which we would be grateful if you could complete.

[6]http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2JCP23S

Kind Regards

Freedom of Information Assistant

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Kendrick Wing, Warrington Hospital, WA5 1QG

Email: [7][email address]

[8]cid:image001.png@01D3D5A4.404E9140

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