Provision of augmentative and alternative communication devices

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT) should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT),

I am an academic researcher, attempting to assess the provision of augmentative and alternative communication devices by the NHS. Would you please send me details of augmentative and alternative communication devices supplied/purchased by your trust between 31st March 2006 and 1st April 2011. I would like the information broken down by both product name (So for example Dynavox Xpress, iPod touch with TapToTalk, BigMack) and by year. I would like information for both children and adults, but I don't require a breakdown by age.

I attempting to find out how many people who have poor or no speech have a speech aid, in particular electronic speech aids, and I would like to know how many have been supplied by the trust during the last five years.

Deven PCT have helpfully give examples on a previous request. The format they used was

2005/06
4 X Digital Electronic Larynxes (Servox)
2 x Listen To Me
2 x Lightwriters
1 x Dynawrite
1 x Dynamo
1 x Falck Voice Amplifier
1 x Lions Speech Aid
1 x Go Talk
1 x Little Mack

2006/07
9 x Digital Electronic Larynxes (Servox)
2 x Lightwriters
1 x mini Printer
2 x The Grid software
2 x Falck Voice Amplifiers
1 x Listen To Me
1 x Textphone
1 x Talking Symbols Notepad

and this would do nicely for me. Other excellent formats were provided by:
Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
Bromley PCT (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
Bristol PCT ( http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/co...)
and Central Lancashire PCT
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/au...)

Just to make the process more efficient for you guys - it would be great to clarify a couple of things at this stage - I am aware that some trusts make use of commissioning trusts to do the actual purchase of the devices; when I have contacted the commissioning trusts I've been often redirected back to the PCT because the paperwork for previous years have been stored at the PCT - this redirection must be causing additional work for both trusts in the long run and it would be great to avoid it (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/au...
is an example of the problem)

Also, and again to make life easier for you, I should point about that since this request is being made via whatdotheyknow.com - email addresses are stripped out of replies to protect your privacy (because the responses are all available to public view- if you are to redirect my request to another body then it's ideal to just give the name of the body rather than just an email address

Yours faithfully,

Dr Joseph Reddington

Dear Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT),

Hey... are you guys okay? You're a little over your 20 days...

Yours faithfully,

Joe

Dominic Mallinder, Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT)

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Reddington,

 

RE: Westminster PCT

 

Further to your Freedom of Information request and subsequent referral to
the ICO. A response for Westminster was provided on the 12 July 2012
however, it was not sent to this address but to
([1][email address]). I am now replying direct
to this whatdotheyknow account with the response.

 

Please note that the response is from Central London Community Healthcare
which you also requested information from and has separate whatdotheyknow
account. It responded on 19 March 2012. We do not hold any previous data.

 

 

 

I am processing all of your Freedom of Information requests relating to
the provision of augmentative and alternative communication devices sent
to the North West London NHS Cluster. This covers Westminster, Hammersmith
and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Ealing Brent,
and Harrow PCTs. I will reply to all relevant whatdotheyknow accounts that
you have setup to ensure that each and every relevant request is answered.
Please review the information and submit any further questions through the
separate accounts and be PCT specific.

 

I apologise for the delay in responding and hope that we can process your
requests as quickly as possible to a satisfactory conclusion.

 

Regards,

 

 

Dominic Mallinder

FOI Lead

NHS North West London

[email address]

15 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JD

www.northwestlondon.nhs.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Dominic Mallinder,

Just to follow up on our conversation of a few moments ago - it's a little suprising that you hold *no* data on this, can you confirm that both the SLT dept and the people in finance have no records of purchases made as recently as 2010?

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dear Dominic Mallinder,

Hi Dominic - any movement on this/

Yours sincerely,

Joe

Dominic Mallinder, Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT)

Joe,

I have now spoken to the Westminster team in INWL (Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham) including finance who have provided a response:

"The CLCH are now the providers and records should be with them following the transfer of functions. We do not hold the information requested."

As part of the previous response I included the response that we received (and you) from the providers CLCH any further questions about the service should be sent direct to them as they have their own responsibilities over FOI requests regarding data that their hold.

Regards

Dominic Mallinder
FOI Lead
NHS North West London
[email address]
15 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JD
www.northwestlondon.nhs.uk

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Dear Dominic Mallinder,

Okay... the response from CLCH was "Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust became a merger of only clinical arms, as the PCT 's are still in existence you may want to direct this request for the PCT to answer as this information was not transferred over."

So at the moment I've got two trusts each claiming the other one has the data. What would you recommend?

Yours sincerely,

Joe

FOI NWL, Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT)

Joe,

I'll check with the Westminster team and find out the records mgt policy at the time. However, they are saying that they do not hold the information or have the information. I will let you know next week what the information is about the transfer of records that would have applied at the time of transfer of functions.

Regards

Dominic

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