NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Queen Elizabeth University Hospital correspondence: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for all correspondence between health secretary Jeane Freeman and the Chief Executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and/or any other board members in the last four months (between 5 December 2018, and 5 April 2019) pertaining to issues around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

In particular, I would like to get access to any documentation that highlights the timeframe of when the minister was told of the deaths that took place in December last year.

This may include sensitive information, but that could be redacted leaving the dates, times and details of when the health secretary was informed about these deaths and her response to this information. This could include details of emails, letters, or recorded phone calls between the chief executive and/or the staff member who contacted the health secretary to inform them about the deaths.

Any other correspondences between the health secretary and pertinent office bearers who oversee the hospital should also be provided if possible.

Any subsequent documents held detailing correspondence between the health board and the health secretary should also be provided if possible.

Response

Some of the information you requested is below:

• Email of 13 February 2019 from Jane Grant to Ms Freeman and Paul Gray enclosing NHS GGC Board Paper regarding the work underway in respect of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital.
• Emails of 4 January 2019 from Ms Freeman to Jane Grant, Chief Executive, NHS GGC, forwarding an email from a third party about media reports about the supply of linen at QEUH and email of same date from Jane Grant to Ms Freeman in response.
• Letter of 25 January 2019 from Ms Freeman to the Chief Executive, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Jane Grant.

Our aim is to provide information wherever possible, however exemptions under Section 25 (Information otherwise accessible) and Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (Personal Information) apply to a small amount of the information you have requested.

An exemption under Section 25 (Information otherwise accessible) relates to point 2, the email of 13 February 2019 from Jane Grant to Ms Freeman and Paul Gray, enclosing NHS GGC Board Paper regarding the work underway in respect of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital. NHS GGC publish their Board Papers on their website, which are available here https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/about-us/nhsggc-board/board-meetings-papers-reports/papers/2019/.
The reasons why these exemptions apply are set out in the Annex below.

ANNEX
REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

An exemption applies
An exemption under section 25 of FOISA (Information otherwise accessible) applies to a small amount of the information requested because the information is already publically available, so there is no need to provide an alternative right of access to it through FOISA. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to a small amount of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. the names and contact details of non-senior staff, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

foi-19-01008 Information Requested

File type

4 page PDF

File size

723.6 kB