procedures in place to deal with requests underAHRA

Waiting for an internal review by NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit of their handling of this request.

Dear NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit,

Under the FOI may I ask for the following information:

- guidelines / legislation / procedure and any administrative tools the NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit has in place, in order to deal with a request under the AHRA.

Many thanks,

Gay Vassay

Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit

Dear Guy

As already explained to you, requests for information about NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit (SLCSU) cannot be made directly to SLCSU and you should direct your request to [email address] .

This is because Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) are not responsible for directly responding to FOI requests made to (or about) them and these all need to be logged and responded to by NHS England as the public authority responsible for answering these FOIs.

Currently, CSUs are organisations which are hosted by NHS England and are not public authorities in their own right.

I am aware that you have already made contact with NHS England as you copied me into the email that you sent to them.

Margaret Benbow

Freedom of Information Manager
NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit
Supporting excellence in commissioning to improve
outcomes for patients

1 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7NT
Direct Dial: 020 7206 3223
E-mail: [email address]
Twitter: @southlondoncsu
Web: www.southlondoncsu.nhs.uk

On 07/05/2014 12:54, "Gay Vassay"
<[FOI #210147 email]> wrote:

show quoted sections

Dear Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

Please clarify whether I have the right to ask for an internal review into your response.

Also, please clarify who is responsible for dealing with requests for health records under the AHRA ~ NHS England or NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit ?

Yours truthfully,

Gay Vassay

Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit

Dear Mr Vassay

Would it help to discuss your requests over the phone? You have made a request for information under the Access to health records Act. I have passed this information onto our Information Governance team and I copied you in. This will not be the responsibility of NHS England, it will be SLCSU on behalf of the CCG.

You also made a request for SLCSU procedures. For this I have asked you to contact NHSE England. This is an FOI request. I think you may have several requests on going and each will have a different process. You are entitled to ask for an Internal review but you should wait for the response first as you have not yet received one.

Would you be happy for me to share your correspondence with me with NHS England so that I know how to resolve these issue for you?

Please give me a number where I am able to contact you to discuss.

Thank you

Margaret Benbow

Freedom of Information Manager
NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit
Supporting excellence in commissioning to improve
outcomes for patients

1 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7NT
Direct Dial: 020 7206 3223
E-mail: [email address]
Twitter: @southlondoncsu
Web: www.southlondoncsu.nhs.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

Thank you for your prompt response.

I do not believe a telephone call is necessary.

I understand I have sent in a new request to NHS England, but my issue is if they referred me back to you - ( as they have done in past - hence my contact with you ) I wanted clarification as to a right to request a internal review of your decision today.

Although I now appreciate you will share and send on this FOI to NHS England, and duly advise them it is their responsibility to respond to FOI's concerning individual CSU's?

Please confirm you have access to my ID's attached to my initial SAR/AHRA.

Yours truthfully,

G Vassay

Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT), NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit

Dear Mr Vassay

I have spoken to NHS England. I will contact you again when I have more information. I do not have access to your ID for the SAR/AHRA but this will be asked for by my colleagues in the Information Governance team. Please do not share those details through this address as it is your personal information.

I have just noticed that there is an FOI request for information on continuing care records separate to the AHRA. This information will be held by SLCSU on behalf of the CCGs and not in its own right. This is because SLCSU has a contract with the CCGs to do this duty on their behalf. Therefore if you can let me know which CCGS you require this information for I can process this part of the request as it is made to the CCGs and not SLCSU. It may be that this is where part of these crossed lines have arisen as this is nothing to do with NHS England as the request is to the CCGs.

As promised I will contact you again when I have spoken to NHS England on how we take this forward to ensure that you get the information that you have requested.

Margaret Benbow

Freedom of Information Manager
NHS South London Commissioning Support Unit
Supporting excellence in commissioning to improve
outcomes for patients

1 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London, SE1 7NT
Direct Dial: 020 7206 3223
E-mail: [email address]
Twitter: @southlondoncsu
Web: www.southlondoncsu.nhs.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

You are correct in stating my email of 04/04/2014 information had separate requests for both medical records and infomation under the FOI act. You further state that this is nothing to do with NHS England as the request is to the CCGs.

The primary email address, that this email of 04/04/2014 was sent to, was Wandsworth CCG (email address below):

"waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net"

I quote from this email:
"If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk

I look forward to your soonest reply"

On 17th April I received the following email from NHS England:

"On 17/04/2014 16:39, Fuller George (NHS ENGLAND) wrote:
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your enquiry dated 04th April 2014.
I am currently investigating/seeking advice/looking into this for you. Enquiries such as this can take some time to investigate and I will provide you with an update in due course.
Kind regards,
George Fuller
Customer Contact Centre Support Assistant
NHS England
Tel: 0300 3 11 22 33
Email: [email address]
Website: www.england.nhs.uk
Address: NHS England, PO Box 16738, REDDITCH, B97 9PT"

Please find below my same day response to George Fuller's email:

"Request of (*name of person*) Health Records under the Access to Health Records Act.
Dear George,
Apologies for incorrect SAR requests, and I now understand that the AHRA provides access to info contained within a dead persons health record, once the requester has satisfied the criteria of application under the AHRA.
I have tried to be as specific and helpful as possible, to assist you locate what I am requesting, to avoid any disproportionate effort on your part.
Please provide costs and methods of payments to request the following information ( points A - D ):
A) Date and notes recording/confirming a diagnosis of Parkinsons Disease ( circa 1995 )
B) Records/notes of last 5 visits to GP in (*name of town*), prior to change of GP in (*name of town*)
C) All records/notes (in particular NHS assesments and care plans, and discharge from hospital notes) from 2005 - to date.
this should include all visits to/from
i) (*name of*) GP's - Dr (*name*)
ii) (*name of*) Hospital
iii) (*name of*) Hospital
iv) (*name of..*) Practice - Dr (*name*) - via (*Nursing home*)
v) All records/notes for any other services commissioned by the NHS
D) Third party nursing care home files/records that the NHS CSU will rely on to assess (*PERSONS*) retrospective continuing health care application
Please find below 2 excerpts which are relevant to requests under the Access to Health Records Act.
1) FROM : www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/23/sec...
(4)No fee shall be required for giving access under subsection (2) above other than the following, namely—
(a)where access is given to a record, or part of a record, none of which was made after the beginning of the period of 40 days immediately preceding the date of the application, a fee not exceeding [F3such maximum as may be prescribed for the purposes of this section by regulations under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998]; and
(b)where a copy of a record or extract is supplied to the applicant, a fee not exceeding the cost of making the copy and (where applicable) the cost of posting it to him.
2) FROM ICO's WEBSITE: http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data...
Yes, an organisation receiving a subject access request may charge a fee for dealing with it. If you choose to do this, you need not comply with the request until you have received the fee. The maximum fee you can charge is £10. There are different fee structures for organisations that hold health or education records (where the maximum fee is £50, depending on the circumstances).
If any part of this email or request is unacceptable please promptly advise and give guidance on how to request this information correctly.
If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk
Kind regards
Gay Vassay"

It is worrying that staff who receive emails at "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net" are able to ignore and evade requests under the AHRA and FOI. Please provide guidelines / legislation and any adminstartive tools in place that show why this department can ignore requests under FOI and AHRA.

Surely the quote below from my email is coherent and understandable.

"If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk
I look forward to your soonest reply"

It is no wonder there are crossed wires when it appears the CCG receiving emails at "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net" has a blatant disregard to requests under the AHRA and FOI.

I received the email below from NHS England on 22/04/2014(response to my email dated 04/04/2014 to "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net")

"Dear Mr Vassay,
Our reference: SDR-245114 - Acknowledgement
Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 4 April 2014.
Please be assured that your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.
If you have any queries about this request or wish to contact us again, please email [email address] and the message will be forwarded appropriately. Please remember to quote the above reference number in any future communications.
Please do not reply directly to this email. This message has been sent from a central mailbox and incoming messages will not be received.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Grindrod
Case Officer (Freedom of Information)
Customer Contact Centre
Transformation and Corporate Operations Directorate
NHS England
PO Box 16738 | Redditch | B97 9PT
0300 3 11 22 33
[email address]
www.england.nhs.uk"

I feel I need to re-iterate the point that I sent the email dated 04/04/2014 to: "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net"

Please find below a quote from my response to the above delayed response, from NHS England, with new FOI requests (response from department that receives emails at waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net is non-existent )

"I have put in a retrospective claim correctly, within NHS deadlines, for an assessment into my late father's eligibility for continuing health care, on or prior to discharge from NHS hospital on (date), therefore;

- Under a new FOI request, may I ask you to please provide and explain what legislation, procedure and guidelines are in place that shows the NHS requires Nursing Care Home Records, that would only have existed, after the date of the claim for a retrospective assessment.

- Under this new FOI request, please also provide any guidelines or information you have regarding NHS' responsibility and role in seeking information from Nursing Care Homes, in particular when a request has been made under the AHRA for ones records / data.

- Under this new FOI request, please also provide guidelines and procedures in place for NHS to deal with an AHRA, in particular, the time scales and procedures of how fees for the provision of requests is calculated, i.e. cost of photocopying and etc. (I have requested my fathers notes from the NHS since 4th April, 2014, and I have not had any estimates/request for costs or even an acknowledgement of the AHRA)

If you require any further clarification to my request, please do not hesitate to contact me by return email, and at your soonest

Kind regards

Gay Vassay"

This email was sent to:
england.contactus at nhs.net
waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net

Please find below response email from NHS England:

"On 24/04/2014 15:46, Contactus England (HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INFORMATION CENTRE) wrote:
Thank you for your email of 24 April 2014.
Your enquiry has been allocated a reference number of SDR 245114 and the information that you have kindly provided has now been passed to the Case Officer dealing with your enquiry who will contact you directly about this
In the meantime, if you require any further information or wish to speak to someone about your enquiry, please contact NHS England at the email address or telephone number shown below.
Yours Faithfully
NHS England
PO Box 16738 | Redditch | B97 9PT
0300 3 11 22 33
[email address]
www.england.nhs.uk"

No response exists from the NHS department that receives emails at "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net" to my 1st email of 24/04/2014.

In response to this email from NHS England I needed clarification, and contents of this email are below:

"Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your prompt reply, but please may I ask you to clarify that the three new FOI requests below are being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and that these three points will be answered within twenty working days;

1) Under a new FOI request, may I ask you to please provide and explain what legislation, procedure and guidelines are in place that shows the NHS requires Nursing Care Home Records, that would only have existed, after the date of the claim for a retrospective assessment.

2) Under this new FOI request, please also provide any guidelines or information you have regarding NHS' responsibility and role in seeking information from Nursing Care Homes, in particular when a request has been made under the AHRA for ones records / data.

3) Under this new FOI request, please also provide guidelines and procedures in place for NHS to deal with an AHRA, in particular, the time scales and procedures of how fees for the provision of requests is calculated, i.e. cost of photocopying and etc. (I have requested my fathers notes from the NHS since 4th April, 2014, and I have not had any estimates/request for costs or even an acknowledgement of the AHRA)

Many thanks

Gay Vassay"

This email was sent to:
"england.contactus at nhs.net"
"waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net"
"george.fuller at nhs.net"

"On 01/05/2014 NHS England replies as follows:
Dear Mr Vassay,
Re: Freedom of Information request (Our Ref: SDR-245114)
Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 4 April 2014.
Your exact request was:-
“1) The number of live and active cases/claims/applications to reclaim retrospective care home fees, received on or before 30/09/2012, that the South London CSU is dealing or dealt with.
2) How many complaints have been noted / received from the applications (from point 1.)
3) How many of these cases/claims/applications (from point 1) have outstanding paperwork to be collated from other departments and care homes.
4) How many of these cases/claims/applications (from point 1) have been finalised/satisfied.
5) Please confirm if there is any chronological order/logic for the finalised/satisfied claims (from point 4.)
6) On any cases that were successful (from point 4), please confirm if backdated interest was paid on amounts due, and if so, please confirm at rates they were calculated.”
NHS England does not hold this information.
However, the South London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) may hold information relevant to your request. If you wish to re-submit your request, please find a list of the South London CCGs below:-
http://www.bexleyccg.nhs.uk/Freedom-of-I...
http://www.bromleyccg.nhs.uk/Contact-us/...
http://www.croydonccg.nhs.uk/contact/Pag...
http://www.greenwichccg.nhs.uk/Contact-u...
http://www.kingstonccg.nhs.uk/have-your-...
http://www.lambethccg.nhs.uk/About-Us/Go...
http://www.lewishamccg.nhs.uk/contact-us...
http://www.mertonccg.nhs.uk/GetInvolved/...
http://www.richmondccg.nhs.uk/HaveYourSa...
http://www.southwarkccg.nhs.uk/about-us/...
http://www.suttonccg.nhs.uk/Contact-us/P...
http://www.wandsworthccg.nhs.uk/getinvol...
I hope this information is helpful. However, if you are dissatisfied, you have the right to ask for an internal review by writing to us, within two months of the date of this letter, to:
NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT
Email: [email address]
Please quote the reference number SDR-245114 in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can be contacted at:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
K9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: [email address]
Website: www.ico.gov.uk
Please note there is no charge for making an appeal.
Please be aware that in line with the Information Commissioner’s directive on the disclosure of information under the FOI Act, your request will be anonymised and published on our website as part of our disclosure log.
Please do not reply directly to this email. This message has been sent from a central mailbox and incoming messages will not be received.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Grindrod
Case Officer (Freedom of Information)
Customer Contact Centre
Transformation and Corporate Operations Directorate
NHS England
PO Box 16738 | Redditch | B97 9PT
0300 3 11 22 33
[email address]
www.england.nhs.uk"

Suggestions that NHS responses are proper, with correct guidance and advice, are nugatory. To insinuate it is I, who is creating crossed wires is very frustrating.

Contacting you, seems to be the first signs of progress and sense coming from the NHS, instead of non-sense, evasive tactics and smokescreens.

I trust you can make sense of this email - and if you cannot see where I am coming from, or cannot understand any part of my complaints, please ask for clarification.

I trust you will relay this as a complaint to all NHS departments that have orchestrated this unlawful mess
(still not sure if that would be NHS England / the CSU and the CCG?) I'll leave it to you to decide who, or which department should conduct an internal review into the evasion of my request for medical records......

I am not happy with the way I am being obstructed from satisfying the criteria to request my fathers medical records under the AHRA. I trust you will explain the situation to the staff who receive emails at "SLCSU.InformationGovernance at nhs.net", and the need for them to provide me with maximum possible costs for my requests under the AHRA, as soon as possible, and conduct an internal review towards staff who receive emails at "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net" Please also ask them to review attachments sent in on email 04/04/2014 to "waccg.retrospectivecase at nhs.net" which has my ID documents. All they should need at SLCSU.InformationGovernance at nhs.net is the fee - which I have been wanting to pay since 04/04/2014.

Yours truthfully,

Gay Vassay

Dear Benbow Margaret (NHS SOUTH LONDON COMMISSIONING SUPPORT UNIT),

Thank you very much for your responses to my personal email address yesterday.

Much appreciated,

Yours truthfully,

Gay Vassay