Freedom of Information Team
Information Governance Team Office
1st Floor Haylock House
Kettering Venture Park
Kettering  NN15 6EY
0300 0111133   (voicemail only)
 
foi@nhft.nhs.uk
 
24 May 2021

Dear Requester,
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000 request: FOI0421046          
 
With reference to your request for information made under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act: we set out below your request together with the Trust’s response(s):
 
You asked:
 
Please provide ECT information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
 

 
Please see attached “Introduction to ECT” leaflet.
 

 
 Please see attached “ECT Consent Form”.
 

 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of our patient records. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
                                                           
4. How many ECT in 2020?

 
176 sessions of ECT were provided to 14 patients in 2020.
 

 
Male – 1
Female - 13
 

 
Under 65’s – 9
Over 65’s - 5
 

 
None
 

 
8
 

 
4
 

          
None

11.How many patients died during or 1 month after ECT and what was the cause (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)?

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office
 

 
 1 
 
The Trust has considered this part of your request and due to the small volumes of data involved has determined that disclosure could lead to individuals being identified; therefore we are only providing a figure.
 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) must advise that it is unable to provide the personal data of another person. Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that the personal data of a third party is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA if to do so would contravene any of the data protection principles.  
 
The Act states:
 
“ Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—

 
The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).”
 
Article 5 (a) states that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.  To release data linked to an individual into the public domain would run contrary to the individual’s expectations of how their data is used and hence would breach the Trusts responsibility under Article 5 (a).
 
^15. Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about ECT? 
 
We have completed a search on our incident reporting tool DATIX using the phrases ECT therapy and Electroconvulsive Therapy and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“(a) determining whether it holds the information,
 

 
^16. If so, what was their concerns?
 
We have completed a search on DATIX using the phrases ECT therapy and Electroconvulsive Therapy and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“(a) determining whether it holds the information,
 
locating the information, or a document which may contain the information,

 
17. How many patients reported memory loss / loss of cognitive function ?

A side effect of ECT is short memory loss.
During their course of their treatment none reported as long term side effect.
 

 
The referring RC/consultant and team are asked to complete the following test before someone starts ECT then after treatment 4, 8, 12.  It is the RC/Consultants responsibility to follow up 2 months after the treatment has been completed also.  
 
The cognitive assessments are MOCA or MMSE.  We also complete the CGI and CPRS before each treatment session and this is recorded in our ECT log book.
 

 
Not common practice
 

 
N/A
 

 
It does not.
It is an essential treatment for the patients that are most psychiatrically unwell.
It has a 70% recovery rate.
 
Please provide SERIOUS INCIDENT information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
 
1. Please supply any serious incident reports/investigations  
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of our patient records. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,
 

 

 
29 Serious Incident Investigations were instigated during the financial year 20202021.
 

 
Male – 21
Female - 8
 
4. How old were they? – BREAK DOWN AGE BANDS

 

 

 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,

 

 
         None       
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
         0
 

 
We have completed a search on DATIX using the phrases “SI Incidents” and “Serious Incidents” and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
 
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,
 

 
12. If so, what was their concerns?
 
We have completed a search on DATIX using the phrases “SI Incidents” and “Serious Incidents” and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,

 

 
13. How does the Trust plan to prevent SERIOUS INCIDENTS in the future? 
 
Please refer to the Trust’s website:
 
https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/search?term=RIDDOR&search=Search&searchType=all  
 
Please provide restraints information under the FOI act to the following questions: 
 
1. Please supply any Restraints/investigations 
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of our patient records. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,
 

 

 
1175
 

 
Of the 251 unique patients restrained:
 
Male - 44%  
Female – 56%
             

 

 

 
13%
 

 
0
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
 4 
 
The Trust has considered this part of your request and due to the small volumes of data involved has determined that disclosure could lead to individuals being identified; therefore we are only providing a figure.
 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) must advise that it is unable to provide the personal data of another person. Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that the personal data of a third party is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA if to do so would contravene any of the data protection principles.  
 
The Act states:
 
“ Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and (b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
 
The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

 
The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).”
 
Article 5 (a) states that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.  To release data linked to an individual into the public domain would run contrary to the individual’s expectations of how their data is used and hence would breach the Trusts responsibility under Article 5 (a).
 
11. Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about RESTRAINTS?
 
We have completed a search of complaints using the word ‘restrain’ from January 2020 – December 2020 and have found 5 complaints with this word in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 

 

 
The Trust has considered this part of your request and due to the small volumes of data involved has determined that disclosure could lead to individuals being identified; therefore we are only providing a figure.
 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) must advise that it is unable to provide the personal data of another person. Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that the personal data of a third party is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA if to do so would contravene any of the data protection principles.  
 
The Act states:
 
“ Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and (b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
 
The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

 
The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).”
 
Article 5 (a) states that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.  To release data linked to an individual into the public domain would run contrary to the individual’s expectations of how their data is used and hence would breach the Trusts responsibility under Article 5 (a).
 

 
Yes, there were 128 forced injections administered in 2020.
 

 
Please refer to the Trust’s website:
 
https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/search?term=restraint&search=Search&searchType=all  
 
Please provide SECLUSION information under the FOI act to the following questions

1. Please supply any SECLUSION reports/investigations 
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of our patient records. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 

 

 
263
 

 
Of the 116 unique patients secluded in 2020:
 
Male – 61%
Female – 39%
 

 

 

 
15%
 
6. How many SECLUSIONS were investigated outside the NHS and CCG?

 
0
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust does not capture this information in a reportable format.
 

 
We have completed a search of complaints using the word ‘Seclusion’ from January 2020 – December 2020 and have found 1 complaint with this word in the description.
 
To give a full response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 

 

 
The Trust has considered this part of your request and due to the small volumes of data involved has determined that disclosure could lead to individuals being identified; therefore we are only providing a figure.
 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) must advise that it is unable to provide the personal data of another person. Section 40(2) of the FOIA states that the personal data of a third party is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA if to do so would contravene any of the data protection principles.  
 
The Act states:
 
“ Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and (b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
 
The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

 
The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).”
 
Article 5 (a) states that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.  To release data linked to an individual into the public domain would run contrary to the individual’s expectations of how their data is used and hence would breach the Trusts responsibility under Article 5 (a).
 

 
Please refer to the Trust’s website:
 
https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/search?term=seclusion&search=Search&searchType=all  
 
Please provide MEDICATION ERRORS information under the FOI act to the following questions
 
1. Please supply any MEDICATION ERRORS reports/investigations 
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of our patient records. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
We do not record ethnicity on our local incident reporting system (Datix) since the introduction of GDPR in May 2018. 
 

 
0
 
7. How many patients died during or 1 month after MEDICATION ERRORS and what was the cause (whether or not MEDICATION ERRORS was considered the cause)?

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
This information is not recorded in a reportable format at Trust level - enquiries regarding deaths should be directed to the Coroner's office.
 

 
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust does not capture this information in a reportable format.
 

 
We have completed a search on DATIX using the phrase ”Medication Errors” and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,
 

 
12. If so, what was their concerns?
 
We have completed a search on DATIX using the phrase ”Medication Errors” and we have had not any complaints logged with this in the description.
 
To give a full and accurate response to this part of your request, we would need to undertake a manual audit of all complaints received in 2020. Therefore, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust regrets that the requested information is not readily available in a reportable format.  
 
To provide the requested information would therefore require manual interrogation of our records to extract the data relevant to this request. We would need to charge you in order to provide this information since it would exceed the £450 limit for public authorities.  
       
As a result, we are refusing this request under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as detailed in the below refusal notice:
 
Refusal Notice – Section 12 Freedom of Information Act 2000:
 
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse a request if the cost of providing the information to the applicant would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004:
 
“12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit 
 
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit”.
 
The Regulations provide that the appropriate limit to be applied to requests received by local authorities is £450 (equivalent to 2.5 days of work).  In estimating the cost of complying with a request for information, an authority can only take into account any reasonable costs incurred in:
 
“determining whether it holds the information,

 

 
13. How does the Trust plan to prevent MEDICATION ERRORS in the future?
 
The Trust has a Medicine’s Safety Group that is a multidisciplinary group that monitors all medication incidents ( both actual incidents and near misses) and shares learning from these incident reports across the organisation, advises on changes to practice and policy should this be necessary. The Trust is in the process of implementing Electronic prescribing and medicines administration as part of its strategy to continuously improve medicines safety. 
 
This concludes our response to your request for information.  If you are unhappy with the reply, please forward your concerns to the address below to request an Internal Review detailing the reasons for your dissatisfaction and these will be addressed accordingly.
 
Head of Clinical Systems and Governance
NHFT Information Governance Team Office
1st Floor Haylock House  Kettering Venture Park
Kettering  
NN15 6EY
 
Alternatively, you may email your request to dpo@nhft.nhs.uk 
 
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the
Information Commissioner for a decision. 

Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Trust. 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
 
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House   Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
 
Yours faithfully, 
 
The Freedom of Information Team
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Email: foi@nhft.nhs.uk | Web: http://www.nhft.nhs.uk  
 
Information Governance Team Office
1^st Floor Haylock House | Kettering Venture Park | Kettering  |  NN15 6E