Charging Regimes

Parking

Free parking will be provided for:

• Mothers of babies in the Neonatal Unit who are coming in frequently to feed;
• One parent of any child in for Haematology or Oncology treatment;
• Patients attending daily for Chemotherapy or other treatment;
• Parent who has to stay overnight with child.

Half price parking will be provided for:

• One parent of any child in hospital for longer than 48 hours;
• One relative of any patient in ITU.

In each case only one validation per patient will be allowed (i.e. for the mother or the father of a child whose stay is longer than 48 hours).

It is fully recognised that exceptional circumstances outside those listed above may arise. A judgement will be made on these by the Head of Security or the Security Manager in consultation with the ward or departmental manager.

The revenue received from car parking pays for the security services and police within the Trust necessary for the protection of patients, visitors and staff.

We follow the Dept of Health guidance of 2006 on Income generation

Telephone and Television

As a result of a government directive, each Trust had to install entertainment services at the bedside of each patient. This was done through NHS Estates. Trusts were given a choice of 3 suppliers for this. This Trust chose the one which offered cheapest outgoing calls for patients.

The company who runs the service, charges as follows:

Dialled call charges

• Calls to a UK landline 10p per min at all times (incl vat)
• Calls to an EU landline 15p per minute at all times (incl vat)
• Other international calls Up to 60% below standard BT payphone rates
• Calls to a UK mobile 10p per minute at all times

Television

• £3.50 per day (or part thereof)
• All beds have free lunchtime viewing of tv from 12.00 to 13.00
• Children's wards have free viewing of some TV channels from 07.00 to 21.00
• Radio is free

The Trust does not receive any income from patient bedside entertainment.

Access to Health Records

The law permits a statutory fee of £10.00 to be charged per application, plus the cost of photocopying at 10p per sheet. Also a fee of £10.00 will be charged for each copy x-ray film or CD. The total cost will not exceed £50.00. The £10.00 application fee should be sent with your application form. Any further charges will be invoiced to you shortly after you have received the copy records.

Applicants who only wish to view their notes at the Hospital, will not be charged an access fee. Prior arrangements must be made for viewing medical records with the Access to Health Records Officer.

Applications concerning copies of deceased patients’ medical records will be dealt with under the Access to Health Records Act 1990. A fee of £10.00 will be charged per application, plus the cost of photocopying at 10p per sheet. Also a fee of £10.00 will be charged for each copy x-ray film or CD. There will not be a cost limit.

Cheques should be made payable to Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust and forwarded to the Access to Health Records Department.

Fees for disclosure where cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit

(Freedom of Information Act 2000, sec 12 & 13)

In accordance with section 13 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the duty to comply with a request for information does not arise if the cost of compliance with the request is estimated to exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ in national fees regulations. The Trust reserves the right to refuse to comply with any request where the provision of information exceeds this limit. Guidance regarding the ‘appropriate limit’ may be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at; www.ico.gov.uk

Translation Services

(Freedom of Information Act 2000, Sec 9 (1) and 21(3))

Heatherwood and Wexham Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) reserves the right to charge ‘reasonable’ costs for the translation of information it holds.

Where a charge is applicable, the requester will be advised of the charge by issue of a ‘fees notice’ within 20 working days following receipt of the request. The charge must be paid for in advance. Once the payment is received, the Trust will supply the requester with the translated information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Where a fees notice has been given and three months has passed without payment, the Trust is no longer obliged to comply with the request.

Copyright Owned Documents

(Freedom of Information Act 2000, Sec 9(1) Sec 21(3))

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) reserves the right to charge ‘reasonable’ costs for the provision of copyright information. This may include for instance research documents solely owned by the Trust.

Where a charge is applicable, the requester will be advised of the charge by issue of a ‘fees notice’ within 20 working days following receipt of the request. The charge must be paid for in advance. Once payment is received, the Trust will supply the requester with the information requested in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Where a fees notice has been given and three months has passed without payment, the Trust is no longer obliged to comply with the request.

Re-use of information supplied by the Trust in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Trust owns the copyright of all material on its public website and of information provided in response to FOI requests unless otherwise stated. The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005 provided a framework for deciding issues relating to the re-use of information held by public bodies - read these here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1515/contents/made.

The Trust must supply information in response to a Freedom of Information request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), but the decision as to re-use of any information supplied in accordance with the FOIA rests with the Trust.

The Trust considers each request for re-use of its information on its own merits. In most cases, re-use requests concern the re-publishing of documents owned by the Trust. The Trust does not discriminate between requesters.

Occasionally the Trust may charge for the re-use of information. This is in accordance with the Trust Publication Scheme. The Trust Publication Scheme is produced in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act section 19, 'publication schemes’ and can be found here: www.heatherwoodandwexham.nhs.uk/foi/publication-scheme.

If permission for re-publication is granted, an acknowledgement of the source of such materials must be clearly stated when the material is re-published.

The material must be clearly separated from any comment made on it by the organisation or others.

Readers of the material must not be given the impression that Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for, or has in any way approved, the publication or network in which the materials are reproduced.

The materials may not be altered or amended unless such material is clearly marked as altered or amended by the organisation or others.

When reproducing the Trust's materials, organisations must have regard to any qualifying statements or descriptions attached to the materials, (for example, descriptions such as 'consultation document', 'discussion paper', or 'preliminary view' are important, as are statements concerning the audience at which the material is directed). If the material is reproduced in full, or substantial extracts are reproduced, any qualifying statements attached to the material must be included.

Where an organisation wishes to re-use the Trust's information but the proposed re-use would contravene any of the conditions set out above, the organisation should contact the Information Compliance and FOI Manager to determine whether the proposed re-use would be permitted and what, of any, additional conditions may apply. The application should be in writing, specifying name and address of the applicant, identifying the documents to be re-used and the purpose for re-use.

If an individual or organisation is unhappy with the manner in which an application for the reproduction or the re-use of the Trust's materials has been handled by the Trust, a complaint should be made in writing to:

The Information Compliance and FOI Manager
Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals Foundation Trust
Wexham Road
Slough
SL2 4HL
Email: FOI@hwph-tr.nhs.uk

If, after the Trust has addressed a complaint, an individual or organisation remains dissatisfied with how the Trust has responded, they are entitled to appeal to the Information Commissioner at the following address:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545700
Web: www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Printing, Copying or Postage

(Freedom of Information Act 2000, Sec 9(1) and Sec 21(3))

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) reserves the right to charge ‘reasonable’ costs for printing, copying or postage costs incurred when responding to a request for information.

Where a charge is applicable, the requester will be advised of the charge by issue of a ‘fees notice’ within 20 working days following receipt of the request. The charge must be paid for in advance. Once payment is received, the Trust will supply the requester with the information requested in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Where a fees notice has been given and three months has passed without payment, the Trust is no longer obliged to comply with the request.

Aggregated Requests

In accordance with the Fees Regulations, the Trust will aggregate two or more requests for the purposes of calculating costs if the requests are;

• by one person, or by different persons who appear to be acting in concert;
• for the same or similar information
• the subsequent request is received by the public authority within 60 working days of the previous request.

The intention of this provision is to prevent individuals or organisations evading the appropriate limit by dividing a request into smaller parts.