Request
Please disclose under the FOI Act:
A log/list of all Serious Untoward Incidents for your acute hospital trusts since January 2009. (i.e. this does not need to include SUIs from Ambulance trusts or mental health institutions).
Please include SUIs affecting both staff and patients. Within this list please provide as much detail as possible about each incident.
If it is necessary for any reason to redact any part of the document (such as personal information like names and addresses), please only redact the relevant part and send me the rest of the information.
Our Response
I refer to your email requesting information in respect of Serious Untoward Incidents at Acute Hospital Trusts since January 2009.
I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that do hold the information that you have requested which can be found in the pdf attachment.
The information that we have provided details data from the SUIs reported to NHS East Midlands from 1 October 2009 to 31 March 2010. For expediency, this data has been electronically produced and you might therefore want to contact constituent organisations to verify these figures before further reporting. This is particularly necessary where there may be instances where the incidents have been wrongly coded by the Trust. The following link to our website will enable you to do this:-
http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/the-local-nhs/nhs-organisations/
While we have provided the majority of information requested we have withheld the actual dates of the incidents under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is because we feel that disclosure of this information, if taken in conjunction with other information such as the name of the Trust and type of incident, carries with it a real threat that the individuals involved in the incidents could be identified. This is especially relevant in cases where only one occurrence of a particular incident has happened at an individual Trust.
In coming to this decision, we have recognised that we are not the data controllers in this instance, we simply hold summary details of incidents which are recorded in greater detail at our constituent organisations and we could not guarantee that this information would not be used in conjunction with other information to piece together details of the incident.
I hope that this information is of use. If you are dissatisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your request you can ask us to review our decision by writing to:-
Mr Moosa Patel
Director of Corporate Affairs
NHS East Midlands
Octavia House
Interchange Business Park
Bostock's Lane
Sandiacre
Nottingham
NG10 5QG
If at the conclusion of any review you remain dissatisfied you may complain to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:-
The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
