Patient Transport Services
Dear The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust,
I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions on your Patient Transport Services:
Patient Transport Suppliers
1) Which company or companies held the contract to supply your patient transport services in each year since 2009?
2) How much did you spend on patient transport in each year since 2009?
3) What is your policy on carrying carers?
4) Please share your Trust's patient transport policy.
Contract
5) In your contract specification with the provider, what is the maximum time, from when transport is requested, within which the patient must be collected?
6) Please state what other standards (e.g. cleanliness) are written into the contract specification.
7) How do you monitor whether the contractor is complying with the minimum standards in the contract?
8) What are the penalties if the contractor breaches the minimum standards of the contract?
9) Is there a patients' user group involved in the oversight of the patient transport contract? If not, do you have any mechanisms through which patient transport users are involved in the governance of patient transport?
10) When is your contract up for renewal?
Complaints and cancellations
11) How many complaints did you get re patient transport month by month in each year since 2009? Please state what categories these were classified by (e.g. driver behaviour, lateness, etc.) and how many complaints were in each category.
12) How many hospital appointments have been missed due to patient transport lateness (other than due to severe weather conditions affecting the patient transport service) in each year since 2009?
13) How many times in each year since 2009 was there a discharge delay due to patient transport issues?
14) How many times in each year since 2009 did patients cancel being picked up by patient transport (because of fear of lateness) and make their own way?
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Stapleton
I will be on leave until Monday 02 June and will reply to your e-mail on
my return on Tuesday 03 June. For any urgent matter relating to FOI,
please contact Adam Smith [1][email address]
Malika Hiouni
Freedom of Information Office
The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Level 4 Highgate Wing, Magdala Avenue
London, N19 5NF
Tel: 020 7288 5653
[2][The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://web.nhs.net/owa/[The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email]/redir.aspx?C=j8s3oLyzVE-CCKOSXT97QOCZIgF6I9FIcrU4MD4x78ugt_iAkpAlN3xHh1q5PFGfwAVlMY14TEQ.&URL=mailto%3awhh-tr.foi%40nhs.net
FoI request re patients transport services
Ref: 14-CS-2606
Dear Mr Stapleton,
This is to acknowledge receipt of your request for information relating to
our patients transport services. This was received on 29 May 2014.
I can confirm that your request is being dealt with under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 and that you can expect to receive a reply
within the timescales specified.
Your request has been forwarded to the relevant department and I'll get
back to you if there is any need for clarification.
Please quote the above reference in any further communication on this
matter.
Yours sincerely
Malika Hiouni
Freedom of Information Office
The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Level 4, Highgate Wing, Magdala Avenue
London, N19 5NF
Tel: 020 7288 5653
[1][The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email]
________________________________________
From: Christopher Stapleton [[FOI #214378 email]]
Sent: 29 May 2014 13:15
To: foi (THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL NHS TRUST)
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Patient Transport Services
Dear The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust,
I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions on your
Patient Transport Services:
Patient Transport Suppliers
1) Which company or companies held the contract to supply your
patient transport services in each year since 2009?
2) How much did you spend on patient transport in each year since
2009?
3) What is your policy on carrying carers?
4) Please share your Trust's patient transport policy.
Contract
5) In your contract specification with the provider, what is the
maximum time, from when transport is requested, within which the patient
must be collected?
6) Please state what other standards (e.g. cleanliness) are written
into the contract specification.
7) How do you monitor whether the contractor is complying with the
minimum standards in the contract?
8) What are the penalties if the contractor breaches the minimum
standards of the contract?
9) Is there a patients' user group involved in the oversight of the
patient transport contract? If not, do you have any mechanisms through
which patient transport users are involved in the governance of patient
transport?
10) When is your contract up for renewal?
Complaints and cancellations
11) How many complaints did you get re patient transport month by
month in each year since 2009? Please state what categories these were
classified by (e.g. driver behaviour, lateness, etc.) and how many
complaints were in each category.
12) How many hospital appointments have been missed due to patient
transport lateness (other than due to severe weather conditions affecting
the patient transport service) in each year since 2009?
13) How many times in each year since 2009 was there a discharge delay
due to patient transport issues?
14) How many times in each year since 2009 did patients cancel being
picked up by patient transport (because of fear of lateness) and make
their own way?
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Stapleton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Dear Whittington Hospital NHS Trust,
Your response to this FOI Request is now very overdue - by law I should have received a full response by 26th June, which is now around four weeks ago.
Could you please give me an update on progress with this, an explanation for the delay, and - as soon as possible, please - the information requested?
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Stapleton
From Tuesday 08th of July 2014, all correspondence must be sent to the new
Freedom of Information email address:
[1][email address]
Please note that this mailbox ([2][The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email]) will not be
monitored as of 1st of August 2014.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email]
FoI request re patients transport services
Ref: 14-CS-2606
Dear Mr Stapleton,
Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request
for information relating to our patients transport services.
Please find our responses below:
Request 1:
Which company or companies held the contract to supply your patient
transport services in each year since 2009?
Medical Services Limited, Non-emergency patient transport - Swiss Cottage
Cars, Minicab/Taxi
M&L ambulance service were the service providers from 1 November 2007 to
January 2012; M&L went into administration at the end of January 2012. At
the end of January 2012 Medical Service Ltd [MSL] took over the contract.
Request 2:
How much did you spend on patient transport in each year since 2009?
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| 2009/10| 2010/11| 2011/12| 2012/13|2013/14|TOTAL |
|--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+---------|
| 742,770| 811,990| 814,811| 546,314|864,754|2,915,885|
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Request 3:
What is your policy on carrying carers?
Please see document attached
Request 4:
Please share your Trust's patient transport policy.
Please see document attached
Contract
Request 5:
In your contract specification with the provider, what is the maximum
time, from when transport is requested, within which the patient must be
collected?
Waiting time for transport after treatment should not exceed 60 minutes.
Request 6:
Please state what other standards (e.g. cleanliness) are written into the
contract specification.
Key % of Performance Performance Measurement Report
Performance Invoice Indicator Measurement Frequency
Indicator at Risk
Patient 0.5 Customer No more than 12, Monthly Trust
Satisfaction Complaints upheld patient
complaints during
the period
Patient 0.5 Patient 500 Surveys to be 6 Monthly Contractor
Satisfaction Tracker completed every 6
Survey months (questions
to be defined by
Trust)
Service 0.5 Time on 95% of all Monthly Contractor
Delivery Vehicle patient journeys,
maximum time on
vehicle to be
less than 2 hours
within 15 miles
and 100% of all
patients within 3
hours within 15
miles.
Service 0.5 Late Time 95% of patients Monthly Contractor
Delivery Allowed arrival no later
than 15 minutes
prior to
appointed time
Service 1.0 1 Hour 1 hour maximum Monthly Contractor
Delivery Maximum waiting time for
95% of journeys
Service 1.0 2 Hour 2 hour maximum Monthly Contractor
Delivery Maximum waiting time for
99.5% of
journeys. In the
event that
patients exceed
or are likely to
exceed the 2 hour
maximum waiting
time then
authorised
officer or site
team (out of
hours) to be
informed.
Service 0.5 Maximum Time 60 minutes prior Monthly Contractor
Delivery Allowed to to appointment
be Early time for 95% of
journeys subject
to unit opening
times.
Request 7:
How do you monitor whether the contractor is complying with the minimum
standards in the contract?
Monthly contract meetings
Request 8:
What are the penalties if the contractor breaches the minimum standards of
the contract?
It is an expectation of the Contractor to monitor activities to a
predetermined schedule and to meet in full the Trust SLA according to the
key performance indicators provided. The Trust authorised offices reserves
the right to perform regular or ad hoc audits of the Contractors quality
of service and or standard of record keeping.
Service credits will be applied at predetermined levels according to the
Contractors own reporting as above and or the Trust officers own findings.
Individual levels of monitoring, are included in the KPI section.
Request 9:
Is there a patients' user group involved in the oversight of the patient
transport contract? If not, do you have any mechanisms through which
patient transport users are involved in the governance of patient
transport?
We do not have at present the involvement of a patient user group however
under the new contract regular reports will be made available to our
patient experience group.
Request 10:
When is your contract up for renewal? The contract is due to end on 30
June 2014
Request 11:
How many complaints did you get re patient transport month by month in
each year since 2009? Please state what categories these were classified
by (e.g. driver behaviour, lateness, etc.) and how many complaints were in
each category.
We will not be able to provide the information broken down by month as
complaints are not categorised in a way that would enable us to extract
this information from the database.
Number of Transport complaints
01.01.2009 - 31.12.2009 3
01.01.2010 - 31.12.2010 4
01.01.2011 - 31.12.2011 10
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2012 14
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2013 8
Total 39
Number of complaints due to failing to collect patients from their homes
to take them to hospital appointments:
Number of Transport complaints
01.01.2009 - 31.12.2009 0
01.01.2010 - 31.12.2010 1
01.01.2011 - 31.12.2011 3
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2012 8
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2013 2
Total 14
Number of complaints due to delays over 2 hours:
Number of Transport complaints
01.01.2009 - 31.12.2009 0
01.01.2010 - 31.12.2010 0
01.01.2011 - 31.12.2011 1
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2012 3
01.01.2012 - 31.12.2013 3
Total 7
Request 12:
How many hospital appointments have been missed due to patient transport
lateness (other than due to severe weather conditions affecting the
patient transport service) in each year since 2009?
On occasions when patients are not bought in, the reason for this can be
varied. It may be the patient has changed their mind or the patient is not
ready on time, or the patient is not at home or there was no answer when
the driver arrived at the patients address. In some instances, a patient
may not travel because they advise they are not well enough to travel.
Whilst we do monitor the contract, we do not categorise the reasons for
the patient not travelling to enable us to respond to the question asked.
The information you have requested cannot be disclosed by the Trust (see
section 12(1)) as it is not held in an easily retrievable format and it
will exceed the time limits of 18 staff working hours to retrieve and look
at all incidents (see Section 13 (1)).
Request 13:
How many times in each year since 2009 was there a discharge delay due to
patient transport issues?
Whilst there have been delays in discharge due to the availability of
patient transport, on occasions there are other factors which affect the
discharge of patients from wards. In much the same way as question 12 we
do not capture the data within a category specific to patient transport.
We believe the instances where there has been a delay in discharge due to
patient transport, such instances are few the primary reason for delays is
either the patient’s medication not being ready or there are other factors
affecting the wards ability to make the patient ready on time for
discharge.
Request 14:
How many times in each year since 2009 did patients cancel being picked up
by patient transport (because of fear of lateness) and make their own way?
Whilst there are occasions when patients cancel their transport the reason
for the cancellation is not recorded by category to enable a response to
the question. As mentioned in the response question 13 we do have patients
cancelling for reasons such as they are not feeling well enough to travel,
or they have made alternative travel arrangements. It is rare that a
patient would cancel their transport because of fear the hospital
transport would make them late for their appointment.
Please quote the above reference in any further communication on this
matter.
I hope you find this information useful. If you require any further
assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me by email, or telephone or
at the address shown below.
Yours sincerely
Malika Hiouni
FOI Coordinator
Freedom of Information Office
The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Level 4, Highgate Wing, Magdala Avenue
London, N19 5NF
Tel: 020 7288 5653
[1][email address]
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|If you are dissatisfied with this response, Whittington Health operates a complaints |
|procedure, details of which can be found below: |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|FOI Complaints: |If you remain dissatisfied with the Trust’s response, you may |
| |write to: |
|In the first instance, | |
|write to: |Information Commissioner's Office |
| | |
|Director Lead for|Wycliffe House |
|Information Governance | |
| |Water Lane |
|Director of Finance | |
| |Wilmslow |
|Level 2 Highgate Wing | |
| |Cheshire SK9 5AF |
|Magdala Avenue | |
| |Telephone: 01625 545700 |
|London | |
| |[3][email address] |
|N19 5NF | |
| |Info: |
|020 7288 5002 |[4]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
| | |
|[2][email address]| |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
________________________________________
From: Christopher Stapleton [[FOI #214378 email]]
Sent: 29 May 2014 13:15
To: foi (THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL NHS TRUST)
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Patient Transport Services
Dear The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust,
I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions on your
Patient Transport Services:
Patient Transport Suppliers
1) Which company or companies held the contract to supply your
patient transport services in each year since 2009?
2) How much did you spend on patient transport in each year since
2009?
3) What is your policy on carrying carers?
4) Please share your Trust's patient transport policy.
Contract
5) In your contract specification with the provider, what is the
maximum time, from when transport is requested, within which the patient
must be collected?
6) Please state what other standards (e.g. cleanliness) are written
into the contract specification.
7) How do you monitor whether the contractor is complying with the
minimum standards in the contract?
8) What are the penalties if the contractor breaches the minimum
standards of the contract?
9) Is there a patients' user group involved in the oversight of the
patient transport contract? If not, do you have any mechanisms through
which patient transport users are involved in the governance of patient
transport?
10) When is your contract up for renewal?
Complaints and cancellations
11) How many complaints did you get re patient transport month by
month in each year since 2009? Please state what categories these were
classified by (e.g. driver behaviour, lateness, etc.) and how many
complaints were in each category.
12) How many hospital appointments have been missed due to patient
transport lateness (other than due to severe weather conditions affecting
the patient transport service) in each year since 2009?
13) How many times in each year since 2009 was there a discharge delay
due to patient transport issues?
14) How many times in each year since 2009 did patients cancel being
picked up by patient transport (because of fear of lateness) and make
their own way?
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Stapleton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[5][FOI #214378 email]
Is [6][The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust? If so, please contact us
using this form:
[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
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