Dear Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust,

I would like you to please clarify clearly and in plain English.
1 - If doctors completing cremation forms are paid for this work (i.e. receive all of or a portion of [if so how much is this portion])?
2 - If doctors do receive payment for this work I would like to understand how you reconcile this with the NHS TCS Schedule 8 paragraphs 14-16 in regard to fee-paying work whilst also being paid for by the employer?
3 - In addition to this, if you do pay doctors for this work do you pay them as part of their monthly salary or is there another system in place to track the number of cremation forms completed and pay these fees in another way - if so please detail how this works?
4 Lastly, I would like to understand regardless of if you do or do not pay doctors for this work if you indemnify them for this work with your legal provider?

Regarding any possible refusals of this request. I suspect that simply emailing your legal team, your HR/payroll team and your berevement team would provide appropriate answers to the above request. Thus I do not expect this request to exceed the cost limit £450. This information is not sensitive nor is the request vexatious.

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Burton

Dear FOI (WALSALL HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST),

Thank you for your reply. However I do not quite understand your response to my first question "We pay on a shift basis, rather than by activity". I will try to clarify my question. Do doctors at your trust who complete cremation forms get paid the fee from the cremation form? Or are they paid no extra for this?

I.e. Take two junior doctor's performing the exact same role on the same rota who are both paid the same standard salary for being at work. If one of them completes two cremation forms in one week. Would that doctor recieve any additional money either paid directly to them or as part of monthly pay packet for this private work they have performed? If the answer to this is yes, please could you then clarify the previously asked questions.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Burton