FOI 1744 – Continuing Healthcare for Neurological Conditions

Response

Date: 23 January 2023

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION – DECISION NOTICE

Dear Sir / Madam,

FOI Reference Number: 1744

1. For each of the financial years April 2020- March 2021 and April 2021- March 2022, and for the current financial year so far:

a. How many people living with a neurological condition in your region received an initial checklist assessment for CHC, and how many of these went on to the full assessment?
b. What proportion of people a neurological condition who received a full CHC assessment in your region were found to be eligible for CHC?
c. How many people living with a neurological condition in your region received a fast-track CHC assessment?
d. What proportion of people living with a neurological condition in your region who received a fast-track assessment were found to be eligible for CHC?

2. For each of the financial years April 2020- March 2021 and April 2021- March 2022 and for the current financial year so far, please provide:

a. The number of decisions made in your region resulting in ineligibility for NHS continuing healthcare for a person living with a neurological condition that were subsequently overturned following local review.
b. The number of requests made in your region for an independent review panel following a local review upholding a decision of ineligibility for NHS continuing healthcare for a person living with a neurological condition.
c. The number of decisions of ineligibility for NHS continuing healthcare for a person living with a neurological condition in your region that were overturned at the independent review panel.

3. For each of the financial years April 2020- March 2021 and April 2021- March 2022 and for the current financial year so far, please provide:

a. The median time taken in your ICB area to conduct NHS continuing healthcare assessments, from receiving the initial checklist to notifying the applicant of the eligibility result.
b. The range of time taken (i.e. shortest time and longest time) in your ICB area to conduct NHS continuing healthcare assessments, from receiving the initial checklist to notifying the applicant of the eligibility result.
c. The number of eligibility reviews for people who have previously been found to be eligible for CHC funding which result in CHC funding being taken away.

4. Does your ICB always ensure involvement of professionals with expert knowledge of the neurological condition when conducting assessments of people for NHS continuing healthcare? For example an MND specialist nurse or a neurologist.

Our response:

I can confirm that we do hold some information in relation to your request. However our relevant databases do not capture individual patient diagnoses; the information that we do capture is not sufficiently detailed to allow us to easily identify patients who are living with with a neurological condition.

We have identified over 700 patients during the requested time periods within our Continuing Healthcare database alone who may fall under the scope of this question; each of these records would need to be inspected manually to ascertain if they are relevant to this request. We estimate that it would take approximately 5 minutes to search each patient record which would give a total of over 58 hours to check all the patients, which would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 in line with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the Organisation holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Therefore pursuant to Section 12(1) of the FOIA this letter acts as a refusal notice for your request. Section 12(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.

In accordance with our responsibilities under Section 16 of the FOI Act, we can advise that we may be able to respond if you are able to refine your request to a less specific topic, for example mental health patients in general, and a shorter timescale.

I hope that this answers your queries with the information we currently hold, but if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to:

NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB
FOI Team
Scarsdale
Nightingale Close
Newbold
Chesterfield
S41 7PF

Or:

ddicb.foi@nhs.net

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, email casework@ico.org.uk.

Yours faithfully,

Kathryn Jacklin
FOI Officer
Derby and Derbyshire ICB

All information we have provided is subject to the provisions of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. Accordingly, if the information has been made available for re-use under the Open Government Licence (OGL) a request to re-use is not required, but the licence conditions must be met. You must not re-use any previously unreleased information without having the consent from the ICB. Should you wish to re-use previously unreleased information then you must make your request in writing (email will suffice) to the FOI Lead via ddicb.foi@nhs.net. All requests for re-use will be responded to within 20 working days of receipt.