Overseas visitors

The request was partially successful.

Dear Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the
information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

Please send me recorded information, which includes information
held on computers, in emails and in printed or handwritten
documents as well as images, video and audio recordings.

If this request is too wide or unclear, and you require a
clarification, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I
understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and
assist requesters.(Section 16 ).

If my request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify
all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I
will also expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve
the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to
charge excessive fees.

If any of this information is already in the public domain, please
can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if
necessary.

If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the
grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with
copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that
information should not be treated as confidential if such an
agreement has not been signed.

I would like the above information to be provided to me as
electronic copies, via WDTK

I understand that you are required to respond to my request within
the 20 working days after you receive this letter. I would be
grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received
this request.

The information required:

Request Title within scope.

:::::

It states in the 2014/5 Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust annual report that the cost of health provision ( amounts written off in year ) for overseas visitors (2.3) has risen from £0 in 2013/14- to £22, 000 in 2014/5.

1. Could you therefore provide me with FOIA due files, ( redacted) showing from which countries these overseas visitors were from .

2. The nature of these visitors medical health care. (An example might be a heart operation ).

3. And, why the money was not recouped from the overseas visitor/s. (This may include the reason given for the loss for the Trust's accounting processes) .

4. The overseas visitors amounts added for the 'impairment of receivables' rose from £20k to £46k.
( same reference)

I would like to read the reasoning for the increase. ( As this is an FOIA request this would Include any board papers, or internal emails).

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear JT

Thank you for your application for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 received on   26 Febuary 2016
We are currently looking into the questions you have raised and will respond to you from the Chief Executive within the Freedom of Information deadline of 20 working days. The response due date for this FOI request is 30 March 2016.   The Trust reference number for your request is 3091.
Please note if we are having difficulties retrieving the information you require we will contact you and let you know. 
Kind Regards, 
Josh
Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Department

t.   01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

This is now out of time. Therefore please review.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear [Name Removed]

Please accept my apologies for not yet responding to your request.

We are endeavouring to obtain the information for you and redact as appropriate and hope that the lateness of our response doesn’t cause you any inconvenience.

We will reply as soon as possible.

Kind regards
Karen Morris
Information Governance Officer

t.    01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

16 Attachments

Dear [Name Removed]

Please find attached the response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
Please find a link to a Survey, the Trust would be extremely grateful if you could complete. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FOIApplic...
Please note by completing this Survey, you may be expressly consenting to the use of cookies for more information please visit the Survey Monkey Website

I apologise for the lateness of this request and hope that it did not cause you too much inconvenience.

Many thanks

Karen
 
Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Department

t.   01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Thank you,

This part of the request does not seem to have had a response:

I would like to read the reasoning for the increase. ( As this is an FOIA request this would Include any board papers, or internal emails).

::::

Surely there must have been some discussion as to why the overseas visitor costs leapt from £0 to £22k?

Are board papers etc missing?

Internal email discussions of why the costs rose so much?

Was a new system instituted for instance, which allowed this increase?

And having noted this sudden increase, what has the board decided to do to ensure that the costs are paid by overseas visitors, rather than UK taxpayer?

As the request is already in review, I will not request another one.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear [Name Removed]

I am endeavouring to obtain this information for you and will provide a response as soon as I possibly can.

Please accept my apologies, I hope that this has not caused you any undue inconvenience.

Kind regards
Karen Morris
Information Governance Officer

t.    01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

2 Attachments

Dear [Name Removed]

Please find attached the response to your recent Freedom of Information request.
I appologise for the late response and for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please find a link to a Survey, the Trust would be extremely grateful if you could complete. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FOIApplic...
Please note by completing this Survey, you may be expressly consenting to the use of cookies for more information please visit the Survey Monkey Website
Many thanks

Karen
 
Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Department

t.   01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

[Name Removed]

Dear Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Overseas visitors'.

Thank you- but this is the information applies to other hospitals and was not requested,although it was helpful

May I remind you that it was already in review.

If you can supply the internal documents from board meetings and internal briefings on the sudden incease in the costs of visitor numbers in the time period specified.

I will wait a bit longer for you to do so....before referring to the ICO

:::

Please may I remind you of the criteria for an Foia request:

Request Title/summary within scope

.( that means the title given to the request is part of the request)

It's an an open government request for all the
information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

Please send me recorded information, which includes information
held on computers, in emails and in printed or handwritten
documents as well as images, video and audio recordings.

If this request is too wide or unclear, and you require a
clarification, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I
understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and
assist requesters.(Section 16 / Regulation 9).

If my request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify
all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I
will also expect you to release all non-exempt material. I reserve
the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to
charge excessive fees.

If any of this information is already in the public domain, please
can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if
necessary.

Please confirm or deny whether the requested information is held ( section (Section 1(1)(a) and consider whether information should be provided under section 1(1)(b), or whether it is subject to an exemption in Part II of the Act.

If the release of any of this information is prohibited on the
grounds of breach of confidence, I ask that you supply me with
copies of the confidentiality agreement and remind you that
information should not be treated as confidential if such an
agreement has not been signed.

I would like the above information to be provided to me as
electronic copies, via WDTK. The information should be immediately
readable - and, as a freedom of Information request, not put in a PDF or any closed form,
which some WDTK readers may not be able to access.

::::::::

Please consider the ICO's Decision on the provision original documents on file, rather than newly written letters of response.

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

This request does not require a letter, drafted by the External Affairs department, or any other written input by reputational defence employees, and purporting to be the response to a FOIA request.

::::::

This was the request :

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Thank you,

This part of the request does not seem to have had a response:

I would like to read the reasoning for the increase. ( As this is an FOIA request this would Include any board papers, or internal emails).

::::

Surely there must have been some discussion as to why the overseas visitor costs leapt from £0 to £22k?

Are board papers etc missing?

Internal email discussions of why the costs rose so much?

Was a new system instituted for instance, which allowed this increase?

And having noted this sudden increase, what has the board decided to do to ensure that the costs are paid by overseas visitors, rather than UK taxpayer?

As the request is already in review, I will not request another one.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

::::

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

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear [Name Removed]

Please accept my apologies for not attaching the above with my response below. This includes a link to all relevant board papers.

The Trust has not started an internal review due to the request being late as this was owing to the amount of redaction required and limited numbers of staff to carry this out.

I hope that you will appreciate that we have to balance many competing demands on our budget and that patient care is always our highest priority.

Kind regards
Karen Morris
Information Governance Officer

t.    01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information Act Responder,

Thanks but as an immediate impression...none of the Adobe attatchments n the first document will open, even though I've got Adobe.

And neither will the Finance report q3. So I expect the rest are the same.

So the attachments need to be put in a publically accessible form for the Internet.

:::

And there don't seem to be any internal documents.

Which leads me to think that there was either absolutely no research into this problem - before the board discussed it .

Have you therefore properly considered this ICO decision:

Please consider the ICO's Decision on the provision original documents on file, rather than newly written letters of response.

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

This request does not require a letter, drafted by the external affairs department, or any other written input by reputational defence employees, and purporting to be the response to a FOIA request.

Can you confirm that there was no internal research on this rapid increase in costs, or emails between employees ?

:::

The brightly coloured reports for public consumption are readable.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

There also aprars to be nothing in the FOIA disclosure log:

http://www.wwl.nhs.uk/foi/FOI_Disclosure...

[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

And no spreadsheets as stated to 'be attached....'

https://www.wwl.nhs.uk/Library/FOI/Reque...

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

The Trust has not started an internal review due to the request being late as this was owing to the amount of redaction required and limited numbers of staff to carry this out.

I hope that you will appreciate that we have to balance many competing demands on our budget and that patient care is always our highest priority.

Please note:

I hope you will appreciate that :

1. The FOIA is a law.

The public have a legal entitlement to make a request.

And there is a statutory number of days - in which to answer requests.

NB I have not held the response to the legally required number of days.

2. I have made no argument that patient care should be neglected.

Please direct me to the part of the request which indicates this idea.

Indeed, I would like to point out until I read the response, I had not realised that FOIA responders were also undertaking patient care. And that the FOIA budget was within the patient care budget - instead of the administration budget.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Review still outstanding.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear [Name Removed]

Please see the attached which explained to you that we were not conducting an internal review as we had given a full explanation as to why your response was sent out late.

Kind regards

Karen Morris
Information Governance Officer

t.    01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Dear Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Overseas visitors'.

Please note:

I hope you will appreciate that :

1. The FOIA is a law. It includes reviews.

The public have a legal entitlement to make a request.

And there is a statutory number of days - in which to answer and review requests.

NB I have not held the response to the legally required number of days.

2. I have made no argument that patient care should be neglected.

Please direct me to the part of the request which indicates this idea.

Indeed, I would like to point out until I read the response, I had not realised that FOIA responders were also undertaking patient care. And that the FOIA budget was within the patient care budget - instead of the administration budget.

Please respond to 2. I have made no such statement.

Foia requests are requester blind and responders are do not accuse requesters of being unthoughtful of patient care.

Indeed the Ombudsman has upheld my complaint and I've received an unreserved apology- from the NHS - for the untimely death of my parent

Therefore please review properly - and apologise for your personal and inaccurate personal remark.

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

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear Mr Oakley,

Can I please confirm that you have requested an internal review in to the length of time it took the Trust to respond to your request and not, the content of our response?

Kind Regards,

Natalie

Natalie Baxter
Information Governance Manager
Information Governance Department
 t.    01257 25 6335/ 48 8271
e.   [email address]
your hospitals, your health, our priority

Please note I do not work Fridays.

show quoted sections

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Please confirm that you have read this:

Dear Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust's handling of my FOI request 'Overseas visitors'.

Please note:

I hope you will appreciate that :

1. The FOIA is a law. It includes reviews.

The public have a legal entitlement to make a request.

And there is a statutory number of days - in which to answer and review requests.

NB I have not held the response to the legally required number of days.

2. I have made no argument that patient care should be neglected.

Please direct me to the part of the request which indicates this idea.

Indeed, I would like to point out until I read the response, I had not realised that FOIA responders were also undertaking patient care. And that the FOIA budget was within the patient care budget - instead of the administration budget.

Please respond to 2. I have made no such statement.

Foia requests are requester blind and responders are do not accuse requesters of being unthoughtful of patient care.

Indeed the Ombudsman has upheld my complaint and I've received an unreserved apology- from the NHS - for the untimely death of my parent

Therefore please review properly - and apologise for your personal and inaccurate personal remark.

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

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Have you grasped the point that the pdf's attachments cannot be read , as they cannot be opened?

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear [Name Removed]

I have visited whatdotheyknow.com and am able to open the pdf's from my office computer. However if you would kindly provide me with an address I am happy to post out hard copies to you.

Kind Regards

Karen Morris
Information Governance Officer

t.    01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

Dear [Name Removed]
Thank you for your application for an internal review under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
We are currently looking into the questions you have raised and will respond to you from the Chief Executive as soon as possible.
We apologise for any miscommunications and inconvienince caused to you by this.
Kind Regards, 
Karen
Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Department

t.   01257 48 8271
e.   [email address]
w.   www.wwl.nhs.uk

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital
Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

your hospitals, your health, our priority

show quoted sections

Freedom of Information Act, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

1 Attachment

Dear [Name Removed]

Please find attached the response to your recent Freedom of Information
request.

Please find a link to a Survey, the Trust would be extremely grateful if
you could complete. [1]https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FOIApplic...

Please note by completing this Survey, you may be expressly consenting to
the use of cookies for more information please visit the Survey Monkey
Website

Many thanks

 

Pam

 

Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Department

t.   01257 25 6284

e.   [2][email address]

w.   [3]www.wwl.nhs.uk

 

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust
Wrightington Hospital

Hall Lane, Appley Bridge, Wigan, WN6 9EP

 

your hospitals, your health, our priority

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FOIApplic...
2. blocked::mailto:[email address] mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
3. blocked::http://www.wwl.nhs.uk/
http://www.wwl.nhs.uk/

Dear Freedom of Information Act,

Thank you for your apology.

You may like to note that other NHS trusts do not ' scold' requesters for making FOIA requests - due to the expense of response. Or imply that money being taken away from patient care.

I would hope that with the apology comes realisation that the FOIA ( which is 'requester blind' ) is a legal requirement. The public have a right to ask how your organisation is spending its money on non-financially contributing overseas visitors, without personally directed comments on their motivations for doing so.

You may wish to examine whether Trust employees make the same comments to other people involved with the Trust - on complying with other legal requirements.

Or is it just the FOIA that is found to be objectionable enough to imply that patient care might suffer with compliance of the Act?

:::

You state:

'The teams (sic) offer to post out hard copies of the PDF files due to your inability to open the files is reasonable'

---

You have now made the personal accusation that it's my 'inability' to open your files.

- An FOIA request is not a personal letter.

Since there is public disquiet about the amount of NHS funds spent on people who have not contributed to the NHS the request is reasonable.

The response is for public viewing and which should therefore by posted on WDTK - for all to read.

Please read details of this legal judgement:

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/court-...

Other NHS authorities have no trouble in providing readable data via WDTK, which you have done in part. So it is not impossible.

I would therefore suggest that the failure lies with the 'teams' 'inability' to post ALL the data in a readable manner.

If you have problems due to the 'inability' of your team of response staff to respond - both in a timely ( as has already been demonstrated on this publically accessible site ) and proficient manner- then I would suggest that you refer the matter to your IT department for help and assistance.

Yours sincerely,

[Name Removed]

[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Second in England for worst performing trusts....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...

[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

That’s wrong diagnosis ⬆️