Justin Goodchild

Dear NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group,

Under the FOI act, could you kindly please provide me with a current list of the
of all Practice Managers & their NHS issued email addresses within your CCG for the
relevant GP surgeries they manage.

Whilst phone numbers are provided for each surgery on other web services, Practice Managers names and direct NHS email addresses are not. Please be aware that I do not have the capacity to make phone calls and my request for email addresses reflect the position that I am in and should be judged accordingly.

I am aware of my rights and responsibilities of receiving such information held

I trust that you will treat my request accordingly

Yours faithfully,

Justin Goodchild

LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

FOI Reference: 001575

Dear Sir/Madam

I acknowledge receipt of your FOI request on behalf of NHS Lincolnshire West CCG which we received on 04 Mar. 20

A response to your request will be sent within 20 working days after receipt, the date 01 Apr. 20

Please note that this mailbox no longer deals with FOI requests aimed at these organisations:

•NHS Lincolnshire East CCG
•NHS Lincolnshire South CCG
•NHS Lincolnshire South West CCG

If you wish to receive information from these organisations you must contact them directly, as follows:

NHS Lincolnshire East CCG – [email address]
NHS Lincolnshire South CCG - [email address]
NHS Lincolnshire South West CCG – [email address]

Yours faithfully

FOI team Arden & GEM CSU
Engagement, Communications and Marketing

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit
Scarsdale, Nightingale Close, Newbold Road, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S41 7PF

T: 01246 514965
E: [email address]
W: www.ardengemcsu.nhs.uk

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LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

1 Attachment

Good afternoon Justin Goodchild

Further to the below please see the response from Lincolnshire West CCG attached.

Regards
FOI team

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Justin Goodchild

Dear LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

I have numerous cases where the request was not deemed vexatious and my request was approved, happy to provide the link to those rather than look at the narrow data you provided.

Firstly vexatious means just that, any interpretation to suit ones own narrative is to considered just that, your own.

Secondly I fail to see that the CCG doesn't utilise one of the worlds largest forms of communications to connect with its own practices already. Are you suggesting that you do not communicate with Practice Managers via email already, not even in emergency cases such as COVID-19, i'd certainly welcome confirming this with any GP practice directly.

NHS email addresses are not personal email addresses, are you suggesting that they are because What do they Know initially redacts them (Upon request this is rectified). I'm aware that the Practice Managers carry their NHS email address with them, however i'm asking for the current PM's email addresses so whatever role they chose to move to, if any, isn't reflective of my current request.

I can happily take this off line if you would like to communicate further and heed that the cost to your CCG for taking this to a review. Given the success rate of previous requests that have been approved from other CCG's I'm sure any review will be overturned in my favour

I look forward to your response and will happily take this offline if you require

Yours sincerely,

Justin Goodchild

LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

1 Attachment

Good afternoon Justin Goodchild

 

Thank you for your email.

 

May we clarify if you are requesting an internal review to the decision to
engage section 14 or seeking answers to the following questions: 

 

Are you suggesting that you do not communicate with Practice Managers via
email already, not even in emergency cases such as COVID-19

 

NHS email addresses are not personal email addresses, are you suggesting
that they are because What do they Know initially redacts them

 

If you are asking for an internal review of the decision to engage section
14 may we ask that you forward the links as you kindly suggest below.

 

Many thanks

 

FOI team Arden & GEM CSU

Engagement, Communications and Marketing

 

NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit

Scarsdale, Nightingale Close, Newbold Road, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S41
7PF

 

T: 01246 514965

E: [1][email address]

W: [2]www.ardengemcsu.nhs.uk

 

 

[3]Description: cid:image004.jpg@01D03175.7654D4B0

 

 

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Justin Goodchild

Dear LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

Please find links below lodged recently

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...

Yours sincerely,

Justin Goodchild

LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

Good afternoon Justin Goodchild

Thank you for the links these will be helpful with the internal review. We note you have not responded to our question however we assume by providing the links you wish an internal review to be conducted. Please advise if that is not the case.

Kind regards
FOI team

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Justin Goodchild

Dear NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group's handling of my FOI request 'Practice Managers GP'.

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

Yours faithfully,

Justin Goodchild

LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

Good afternoon Justin Goodchild

Thank you for your email.

We can confirm that as a result of our correspondence yesterday the request for internal review was sent to the CCG yesterday and a response will be sent on or before 2 April.

Kind regards
FOI team

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LINCOLNSHIREWESTCCG (NHS ARDEN AND GREATER EAST MIDLANDS COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

1 Attachment

Dear Justin Goodchild

 

FOI Reference Number: 001575

 

I refer to your email below requesting an internal review into the former
NHS Lincolnshire West CCG’s handling of your request for information under
the Freedom of Information Act (2000) (FOIA).

 

Firstly I wish to inform you that the organisation previously named NHS
Lincolnshire West CCG is being dissolved and the Lincolnshire wide CCGs
are being integrated into a single organisation as of 1 April 2020. The
integrated organisation will be the Data Controller for the information
relating to the previous organisations.

 

Internal review process

It may be helpful if I first explain that an Internal Review looks at the
handling of, and response given to, a FOIA request which has previously
been made. The scope of an Internal Review is therefore limited to
considering whether the request was appropriately handled and whether the
response given was accurate and appropriate. An Internal Review cannot
consider any new queries not originally included in the relevant FOI
request; these should be submitted as new FOI requests.

 

I can confirm that the Internal Review panel consisted of the former CCG’s
Locality Delivery Manager who was tasked with reviewing the request and
the original response. In doing so the panel considered the guidance on
the FOIA as published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

 

Please see below a detailed explanation of the CCGs’ review process and
the decision:

The original FOI request was received 4 March 2020. The request was
acknowledged on that date and the final response was sent 5 March 2020.
The panel notes the request was acknowledged in a timely manner and the
response was sent within twenty working days of receipt and was,
therefore, compliant with the FOIA.

 

The panel has also assessed whether you received an appropriate response
to your request and is grateful for the opportunity to revisit the former
CCG’s original decision.

 

Internal Review Response

The panel notes that in the original response the former CCG has engaged
the exemption set at section 14, deeming the request vexatious.  This was
because the former CCG argued that to disclose the practice manager’s
email addresses would create an unnecessary burden on NHS resources;
especially at a time of crisis and/or emergency.

 

The former CCG also stated “…practices provide a single point of contact
so that enquiries can be passed on to the most appropriate person in a
timely manner.  This single point of contact is in preference to providing
various contacts or individual’s email addresses which could result in
causing confusion, or delay due to staff being on annual leave, absent due
to ill health or having left the role.”

 

The panel acknowledges that email is a convenient, timely and economical
form of correspondence, benefitting many individuals and acknowledges this
must be balanced with appropriate usage, especially during a crisis and/or
emergency.

 

Taking all the circumstances of the case into account, the need for clear
channels of communication and the current national situation the panel has
decided that the balance lies in upholding the original decision to engage
section 14.  This is because to release the information at this time would
cause the CCG, the GP practices and the NHS as a whole an unnecessary
burden.  

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the CCG.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: telephone 0303 123 1113,
email [1][email address] and

 

[2]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...

 

Under the terms of the Open Government Licence, you may use and re-use the
information provided within this response (not including logos or
photographs), free of charge in any format or medium; unless identified as
another party’s copyright.

[3]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...

 

yours sincerely

Philip

 

Philip Humphreys

Corporate Senior Manager

Engagement Communications and Marketing

NHS Arden & GEM CSU

T: 01246 514965

M: 07827083868

E: [4][email address]

 

 

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