EWTD opt-out, Locums and Patient Safety

Request 1

EWTD OPT-OUT

I am interested in the numbers and proportions of junior doctors opting out of the EWTD 48-hour working week requirement.

Summary of desired data:

Number and % of junior doctors opting out of EWTD 48hr week

• at trust level

• by training grade

• by specialty (less essential)

• time series: monthly figures from Aug 09 to present

Response 1

Some of the information requested is not held centrally, to locate and extract this information would exceed the cost of compliance as descibred in response to question 2. The information that can be provided is as follows.

The percentage of Doctors at Trust level who have opted out of EWTD is 67%, as they are all training Doctors the % remains the same by training grade.

Although the EWTD applies to everyone, the figures provided relate to junior doctors who have the option to opt out.  The figures provided therefore only relate to junior doctors, therefore 67% of Junior Doctors have opted out of the EWTD. This figure represents the percentage of Junior doctors that have opted out – this is the figure that is held and reported on.

WTD was implemented in 2009 and the opt out forms were not used until 2010, so the information is not held before this date.

The form to opt out of EWTD is completed by Junior doctors at either recruitment or appointment stage, this is the information collated and reported on.  The information therefore refers to the number of doctors choosing to opt out by the month they complete the opt out form and not the number of doctors actually opting out  of EWTD by month.  A percentage of junior doctors choose not to opt out so they may act in the capacity of Locums or work additional hours if the needs arises.If the date is not completed on the form at the time the month is not known.

The number of junior doctors opting out is as follows;

June 2010             - 12

July 2010               - 14

August 2010         - 13

September 2010  - 1

October 2010        - 2

November 2010   - 2

December 2010   - 1

2011

February 2011      - 18

March 2011           - 8

April 2011              - 5

June 2011             - 28

August 2011         - 2

There were a total of 5 papers with no dates.

Request  2

LOCUM USE

Does the trust hold information on locum use (headcount/FTE) on a monthly basis? My requirements would be similar to those above:

Summary of desired data:

Headcount and FTE of locum use:

• at trust level

• by training grade

• by specialty (less essential)

• time series: monthly/quarterly figures from 2005 to present

(if possible – most urgent would be from 2007 onwards)

Response 2

In response to this question 2 I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that we do not hold the information that you have requested centrally, in the format that you have requested.

We have estimated that to locate and collate all the information that you have requested would exceed the appropriate limit as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 as it would require us to manually extract the information from various storage areas including archives held by the HR department.  There were in excess of 205 records last year, information would need to be found within each record and the information extracted.

Therefore, to locate the record and search for the information requestedwould take an average of 10 minutes per record, in excess of 34 hours at cost of £855 for 2010/11 alone. The limit set down by regulations for public authorities is £450, which amounts to a maximum of 18 hours of search and retrieval time charged at £25 per hour, the hourly rate also specified in the regulations.  Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Trust is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you.  Please be aware that this is not an exemption which requires us to consider the application of the public interest test

Request 3

PATIENT SAFETY INCIDENTS

Could you please provide data on patient safety incidents:

• Number of incidents occurring (based on occurring dataset)  1,828 (Apr – Sep 2008)

• Rate per 100 admissions (based on occurring dataset)  Unknown

• Degree of Harm (N and %)  See data below

Response 3 

Patient Safety Incidents

Request 4

NUMBERS

Summary of desired data:

Headcount and FTE of qualified nursing staff (excluding health visitors if possible) employed by the trust:

• by Agenda for Change grade

• time series: annual figures from 2005 to present

• including/excluding bank staff is possible

Response 4

Figures prior to the introduction of ESR in 2007 are not held centrally.  We have established that it would take more than 18 hours to locate all the information you have asked for, as details of grades of nursing staff, is held within staff records which are not held centrally.  To identify the specific information requested we would need to manually extract the information. Therefore we consider that the exemption offered to us in S.12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to the cost of compliance is applied, since we are of the opinion that the costs which we are allowed under the Act exceeds £450. As you will be aware this is not an exemption which requires us to consider the application of the public interest test

Nursing staff figures from 2007 are provided below