NHSI pathology reconfiguration

The request was successful.

Dear East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust,

NHS Improvement wrote to the chief executives of all non-specialist acute trusts in England on or around 7th September 2017 in relation to their proposal for pathology hubs and spokes, which divided English NHS hospitals into 29 groups. Chief executives were required to reply by September 30th 2017, either agreeing to commit resources to forming a pathology hub and spoke with the other trusts defined for them by NHS improvement, or to submit an alternative proposal. In relation to this, please answer the following questions:

a. Has the chief executive of your trust written to confirm their acceptance of the proposal from NHS Improvement

b. If the answer to a) is ‘no’, do they plan to and if so by when?

c. If the answer to a) is ‘no’, has the trust submitted an alternative proposal

d. Are the trust considering (either in alignment with the NHS Improvement proposal, or as an alternative) any solutions which would involve partnerships with or outsourcing (we are excluding the sending of low volume specialist tests to these companies from the definition of outsourcing) to private sector laboratory companies (defined as companies which manage laboratories such as TDL, Sonic, HSL, synlab, Labco, Viapath, and not companies which provide equipment such as Siemens, Abbott laboratories, or Roche)

e. Have the trust, either individually, or collectively with the other trusts in its group, ruled out any form of partnership or outsourcing the management of their laboratories as defined above, for the foreseeable future.

Yours faithfully,

J Graham

Freedom of Information (ELHT) Mailbox, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Dear J Graham

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Request under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Ref: 2017/10/02/Graham J

Under the Act, the department is required to provide you with a response within 20 working days. We will write to you in response to your request for information by 30 October 2017.

The Freedom of Information Act includes a number of exemptions to releasing information. Some of these are qualified exemptions which require us to consider whether it is in the public interest to disclose or withhold the information. In these circumstances we may need more time to consider your request, and if this is the case we will write to you by the date above to inform you of when you can expect to receive a response. If you have any queries regarding this request please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting the reference number at the top of this email in all future correspondence.

Details of how we will process your request are available on our website at: http://www.elht.nhs.uk/freedom-of-inform...

Yours sincerely,

Corporate Governance Compliance Officer East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

Freedom of Information (ELHT) Mailbox, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust

1 Attachment

Dear J Graham

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please see attached answers to your questions.

If you are not satisfied with the response you have received in relation to your request and wish to request a review or make a complaint, you should write to the Associate Director of Corporate Governance at the Trust Headquarters, Level 2, Royal Blackburn Hospital, Haslingden Road, Blackburn, BB2 3HH. Tel: 01254 735998. Email: [East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust request email]

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF.

Regards,

Hansa Cannon
Corporate Governance Compliance Officer
Company Secretariat

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust | Trust Headquarters | Level 2 | Opposite Ward B2 and Ward B4 | Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital | Haslingden Road | Blackburn | Lancashire | BB2 3HH

Tel (DDI): 01254 732110
Int Ext: 82110
Email: [East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust request email]

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