Freedom of Information Request: 0385
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) completed a merger by acquisition of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) on 1st April 2018. UHB includes Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Solihull Hospital and Community Services, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham Chest Clinic.
For the purposes of this request we have answered on behalf of the whole Trust.
I would like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act please for some information about members of staff who have raised concerns about patient care or about the conduct or competence of colleagues.
In all parts of this request, I would like the term ‘colleague’ to be taken to include those working at levels more and less senior to the staff member raising the concern – as well as those working at an equivalent level of seniority to the staff member raising the concern.
I would like the data to cover the period from 1st January 2012 to 31st December 2017 (inclusive) please.
Points 1-4 are requests for figures regarding the number of concerns raised during the period stated and the events which followed those concerns being raised. In each case, I have asked for these figures to be broken down by calendar year.
Point 5 requests additional information about the individual concerns included in the data provided in response to points 1-4.
The information I would like to request please is:
1. How many members of staff raised concerns about patient care or the conduct or competence of colleagues during the time period stated above?
*Please provide a breakdown by calendar year – detailing the number of staff members who raised such concerns during each calendar year.
The Trust does hold the information you have requested. However, the Trust estimates that compliance with your request would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12 of the Freedom of information Act 2000. This is currently £450. The appropriate limit would be exceeded if it would require more than 18 hours work.
There are various routes within the Trust whereby a staff member can make a complaint, i.e. at a local level with their Managers, directly with HR, reported via the Datix Incident Reporting System and via a Whistleblowing route. .
Upon receipt of your request, it was sent to various service areas to conduct a thorough search for the information. We were advised by all service areas that there is not a single-system route to locate this information which means that the information is not easily and readily accessible, and would therefore not be a reliable and accurate representation of our data.
Please allow me to explain: The Informatics Department conducted various searches within our incident reporting system using key words from your request. This search found 50,000+ files and in order to locate any information, a member of staff would have to search 50,000 files which could take up to 15 mins per file.
Also, HR have reported that they do not record this information in a way that fits easily with the way in which you have requested it: because of the nature of the information in the files, a simple search of key words would not pinpoint the information sought and would therefore require a manual identification of casework by reviewing records in the timeframe requested, and then cross-checking the relevant casework folders to ensure relevance to remit of this request; this would involve a manual audit of approximately formal 2,430 records for the Trust. HR would anticipate that such a manual audit and cross-check of files would require on average 2 minutes per case of the 2,430 volume. Separate to that, complaints that are not formally investigated would require similar keyword searches to that undertaken by the Informatics Department referenced above.
2. How many of the concerns raised by members of staff about patient care or the conduct or competence of colleagues during the time period stated above were formally investigated?
*Please provide a breakdown by calendar year of the number of these concerns which were formally investigated at any level and at any time – according to the calendar year in which the concern was raised.
(E.g. The number of these concerns raised in 2013 which were subsequently formally investigated at any level and at any time; the number of these concerns raised in 2014 which were subsequently formally investigated at any level and at any time.)
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
3. How many of the staff members who raised concerns about patient care or the conduct or competence of colleagues during the period stated above subsequently complained about the behaviour of colleagues toward them?
*Please provide a breakdown by calendar year – according to the calendar year in which the original concern was raised.
(E.g. The number of staff members who raised concerns in 2013 and subsequently complained about the behaviour of colleagues toward them; the number of staff members who raised concerns in 2014 and subsequently complained about the behaviour of colleagues toward them).
4. How many of the staff members who raised concerns about patient care or the conduct or competence of colleagues during the period stated above left their jobs within:
4a. 6 months or fewer
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
4b. 6-12 months
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
4c. 12-24 months
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
4d. 24 months or more
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time
of first raising these concerns?
*Please provide a breakdown by calendar year – according to the calendar year in which the original concern was raised.
(E.g. 4a) The number of staff members who raised such concerns in 2013 and left their jobs within 6 months or fewer of raising these concerns; The number of staff members who raised such concerns in 2014 and left their jobs within 6 months or fewer of raising these concerns.)
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
5. I would like to request the following information please about each individual concern about patient care or the conduct or competence of colleagues which has been included in the responses to points 1-4:
5a. Where possible, please provide the job title of the member of staff who raised each concern and – if the concern referred to the conduct or competence of a specific colleague – whether the colleague to whom the concern referred was more senior than, less senior than, or working at an equivalent level of seniority to the staff member raising the concern.
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
5b. For each of the concerns which were formally investigated, please provide details of the length of time which elapsed between the original concern being raised and the start of a formal investigation.
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
5c. For each of the concerns which were formally investigated, please provide details of the level at which each concern was investigated.
For the reasons stated in response to Q1, this information cannot be provided at this time.
