Provision of phlebotomy services

The request was successful.

Dear Highland NHS Board,

Please could you describe the provision of phlebotomy services by your Board.

In addition to District Nurses employed by the Health Board, please describe:

1. Are phlebotomy services provided by phlebotomists employed by the Health Board?

2. Are phlebotomy services provided directly by GP practices by phlebotomists employed by them and, if so, how are GPs remunerated for this?

3. How are blood samples transported from the point of collection to the laboratory for processing?

4. How many phlebotomy services provided by your Health Board post blood samples to the laboratory for processing?

Yours faithfully,

Dr Robert S. Coull

FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Thank you for your FOI request.

 

Your request has been passed to a member of the FOI team and a reference
number for your request will be issued to you in the near future.

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FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull,

Thank you for your FOI request.

I will seek the information you request and respond in due course. This will be within the 20 working days target specified by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Please note if you have any further queries regarding this FOI please email at [email address] quoting the above reference.

Yours sincerely

Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull,

With regards to your FOI below, to ensure we respond to your request appropriately, I should be grateful if you could be more specific in your questions to ensure we provide a suitable response.

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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Dr Robert S. Coull

Dear FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

I’ve submitted FOISAs to all the Scottish Health Boards and they have all now replied with the exception of your board and one other.

I’m keen to ensure that the questions are consistent across the boards to ensure we can compare answers properly when collating the results.

The background to these requests is that our Patient Group requested information from the Argyll and Bute locality as to why the Strachur Medical Practice is still required to post bloods to the lab - causing problems with spoiling of samples, un-necessary retesting (sometimes multiple times) and safety issues related to unreliable results, delays in receiving results, and problems with tracking samples. The Patient Group felt that a van collection service should be operated by the Health Board.

The response by the A&B locality manager to that enquiry (1) posting of samples was commonplace, and (2) that transport of blood samples from GP practices to the local hospital collection point was the responsibility of the GP and that the GP should consider sending bloods to the nearest hospital by taxi (the nearest hospital is 20 miles from our practice).

That response seemed wildly inaccurate to us, and a decision was made to contact all practices in Highland and all Health Boards nationally to determine if the information given by the manager had any basis in reality.

I have added clarifications to my request in bold:

1. Are PRIMARY CARE phlebotomy services provided by phlebotomists employed by the Health Board?

2. Are phlebotomy services provided directly by TOWN GP practices by phlebotomists employed by them and, if so, how are GPs remunerated for this?
- THE INFORMATION FOR RURAL GP PRACTICES HAS NOW BEEN OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM THE PRACTICES IN HIGHLAND AND NO LONGER REQUIRES TO BE INCLUDED

3. WHAT METHODS are IN USE TO TRANSPORT blood samples FROM TOWN GP PRACTICES transported from the point of collection to the laboratory for processing? (EG: HEALTH BOARD VAN, POSTAL SERVICE, TAXIS PAID FOR BY THE GPS)

4. How many phlebotomy services provided by TOWN GPS OR DIRECTLY BY THE Health Board post blood samples to the laboratory for processing?
- THE INFORMATION FOR RURAL GP PRACTICES HAS NOW BEEN OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM THE PRACTICES IN HIGHLAND AND NO LONGER REQUIRES TO BE INCLUDED

I hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Robert S. Coull

Dr Robert S. Coull

Dear Highland NHS Board,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Highland NHS Board's handling of my FOI request 'Provision of phlebotomy services'.

Failure to respond within the statutory time scale.

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,

Dr Robert S. Coull

FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Coull,

Thank you for your email. In accordance with FOI legislation, we requested further clarification on your original questions to ensure we responded appropriately. This clarification was received on October 12th which meant the original twenty days was reset therefore we have not exceeded the twenty working days deadline.

Please find attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information Request.

If you have further queries regarding this please email [email address] quoting the above reference.

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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Dr Robert S. Coull

Dear Highland NHS Board,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Highland NHS Board's handling of my FOI request 'Provision of phlebotomy services.

The response received does not answer the questions. The clareification requested information about town GP practices and postal blood samples but these questions were not answered.

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,

Dr Robert S. Coull

FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull,

Thank you for email. I acknowledge receipt of your request for a review into our recent response. I have passed this to the relevant department and we will respond in due course.

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull,

To ensure we respond appropriately to your internal review, can you confirm if the question below requires response? Thank you.

How many phlebotomy services provided by TOWN GPS OR DIRECTLY BY THE Health Board post blood samples to the laboratory for processing?
- THE INFORMATION FOR RURAL GP PRACTICES HAS NOW BEEN OBTAINED DIRECTLY FROM THE PRACTICES IN HIGHLAND AND NO LONGER REQUIRES TO BE INCLUDED

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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Dr Robert S. Coull

Dear FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Yes thankyou, that question did not receive a response in the original reply from HHB so still requires a response.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Robert S. Coull

FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Thank you for your FOI request.

 

Your request has been passed to a member of the FOI team and a reference
number for your request will be issued to you in the near future.

show quoted sections

FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull,

Thank you for your email. We will process the question appropriately.

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

Dear Dr Coull

With regard to your review, can you confirm what you mean by "town"? Thank you.

Many thanks,
Anna

Anna McInally
Freedom Of Information Administrator
PA Support to Elaine Mead, Chief Executive, NHS Highland

NHS Highland
Assynt House, Beechwood Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW

Ext 4927

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Dr Robert S. Coull

Dear FOIRequestsHighland (NHS HIGHLAND),

GP practices are commonly classified in Scotland into Remote, Rural, Town/Urban, and Deep End (Deprived)

To my knowledge Highland does not have any deep end practices.

We have already obtained the information for all remote and rural GP practices directly.

However, if this classification does not make things easier (ie: you are not familiar with the classification system), then it might be better to revert to the origainl question to avoid any error:

“How many GP practices in the Highland Health Board area post blood samples to the laboratory for processing.”

Yours sincerely,

Dr Robert S. Coull

DALY, Ruth (NHS HIGHLAND),

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Coull

Please find attached the response to your request for a review in relation
to your Freedom of Information request.

If you remain dissatisfied following the investigation of your review,
then you have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner
within 6 months of the date of receiving the review response. Contact
details are as follows:

Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St Andrews

KY16 9DS

Telephone: 01334 464610

Fax: 01334 464611

e-mail: [1]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

Yours sincerely

Ruth Daly

Board Secretary

NHS Highland

Assynt House

Beechwood Park

Inverness

IV2 3BW

Tel 01463 704810

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