Public Liaison Services Health and Social Care Trust 1st Floor, Nore Villa Knockbracken Healthcare Park Saintfield Road Belfast BT8 8BH

T: (028) 9504 5888 F: (028) 9056 5553 E: [email protected] 27 February 2020

Our ref: FOI/21414

Ed Fryer Email: [email protected]

Dear Mr Fryer

RE: Iron pharma patients

I refer to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request received 3 February 2020. Please find below Trust response.

How many patients have received an iron infusion in the last 12 months?

Data for Day of Surgery Unit (DSU): Belfast City site; and the Ambulatory Care Centre (ACC): Royal Victoria Hospital site. Data for the wider Trust is not centrally held.

ACC RVH 14/02/19-14/02/20 Monofer: Approximately 500 Ferinject: Approximately- 20

DSU BCH April 2019-14/02/20 Monofer: Approximately 113

How many patients have been treated with Monofer and how many with Ferinject?

Data for Day of Surgery Unit (DSU): Belfast City Hospital site; and the Ambulatory Care Centre (ACC): Royal Victoria Hospital site. Data for the wider Trust is not centrally held.

Monofer: 613 Ferinject: 20

What was the average weight of these patients?

This information is not centrally held. To undertake this exercise would necessitate a manual trawl of patient notes. We estimate that compliance with this request for information would exceed the appropriate costs limit. Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information 2000, the limit has been specified as £450 and represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 18 hours in determining whether we hold the information, locating, retrieving and extracting this information.

How many patients required more than 1 gram of iron?

Data for Day of Surgery Unit (DSU): Belfast City Hospital site; and the Ambulatory Care Centre (ACC): Royal Victoria Hospital site. Data for the wider Trust is not centrally held.

The majority of patients receive 1 gram, we do not have exact figures for this as this would necessitate a manual trawl of patient notes. We estimate that compliance with this request for information would exceed the appropriate costs limit. Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information 2000, the limit has been specified as £450 and represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 18 hours in determining whether we hold the information, locating, retrieving and extracting this information.

How many nurses and for what days and hours are your Iron infusion clinics available?

Data for Day of Surgery Unit (DSU): Belfast City Hospital site; and the Ambulatory Care Centre (ACC): Royal Victoria Hospital site. Data for the wider Trust is not centrally held.

There are no specific clinic days for these treatments, nor are there specific nurses assigned to this role. These treatments are delivered as part of a larger caseload of therapies, treatments and postoperative care.

The units are open as follows and treatments can be delivered on any day of the week:  BCH DSU is open 7:00 am - 8:00 pm, 5 days a week, excluding Bank Holidays.  RVH ACC is open 7:30 am – 8:30 pm, 7 days a week, 364 days a year.

If you are dissatisfied with how this request has been handled, you can seek a review within the Trust in the first instance. You should write to: Public Liaison Service, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Nore Villa, Knockbracken Health Care Park, Saintfield Road, Belfast BT8 8BH or alternatively e-mail: [email protected] within two months of the date of this response and your complaint will be considered and a response provided usually within 20 working days of receipt.

Should you still be dissatisfied with the outcome, you can proceed to the second review stage by contacting the Information Commissioner, The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review. It is important to note that if you refer any matter to the Information Commissioner, you will need to show evidence of having gone through the Trust’s review process to try to resolve the matter with the Trust in the first instance.

If you have any queries regarding this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Clark Turner Public Liaison Services Officer