Ophthalmology and MRI waiting times (FOI)

Request

A

In the last year what was the average wait time for an appointment in the General Hospital Ophthalmology department?

B

In the last year what proportion of appointments for MRI scans were for private patients?

C

In the last year what was the average wait times for MRI appointments broken down by private / non-private?

D

In the last year what was the average wait times for MRI appointments broken down by the parish of the patient's address?

Response

A

In 2018 (to July), the average waiting time for an outpatient appointment in ophthalmology was nine weeks.

Average waiting times are now published on the States of Jersey website at the following link:

Hospital waiting times

As this information is available publicly, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

B

Approximately 28% in 2017.

C

D

Health and Community Services is unable to report the data in the manner requested as data from two information systems would need to be accessed and data reconciled. This would take longer than 12.5 hours to complete. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Exemptions and / or refusals applied to this request:

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.