Request
This request concerns the Interim Cancer Drugs Fund (ICDF), which commenced on 1st October 2010.
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the total number of applications submitted to your Cancer Drugs Fund and the total number of approved applications for each month upto the 31st January 2011.
For each individual application made to your ICDF for the first 4 months of the ICDF ( i.e. 1st October 2010 to 31st January 2011) please provide the following information:
1) - The name of the drug requested
2) - The indication it was requested for
3) - The date the application was received by the ICDF
4) - The date a decision was notified to the referring Clinician
5) - The outcome of that decision; whether it was funded or not
6) - Confirmation if the application had been ‘fast tracked’ direct to the ICDF, or, if the application had initially been considered and refused by a Primary Care Trust.
7) - The total spend from your ICDF allocation, on Cancer drugs for the period 1st October 2010 to 31st January 2011.
Please acknowledge receipt of this request and advise how quickly I can expect a response.
and;
FOI Act 2000 – Request for General Information - the Interim Cancer Drugs Fund.
This request concerns the Interim Cancer Drugs Fund (ICDF), which commenced on 1st October 2010.
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following general information in respect of the Interim Cancer Drugs Fund.
1) - Please confirm if you have set aside a budget for the administration of the ICDF upto April 2011.
2) - If so what is the amount of money you have set aside to administer the fund.
3) - Please confirm all costs incurred with the initial set up and administration of the ICDF upto 31st January 2011.
4) - Please confirm the name of the current Chair of the ICDF committee for your region and the composition of the ICDF committee by job title.
5) - Please confirm whether minutes of ICDF committee meetings are produced and provide copies of those minutes ( please redact any personal patient information).
Please acknowledge receipt of this request and advise how quickly I can expect a response.
Our Response
I refer to your two emails concerning information in respect of the Interim Cancer Drug Fund.
I can confirm in accordance with S.1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) that we do hold most of the information that you have requested. I will address each of your points in turn:
Request Number 1
1. Please confirm if you have set aside a budget for the administration of the ICDF up to April 2011
2. If so what is the amount of money you have set aside to administer the fund
3. Please confirm all costs incurred with the initial set up and administration of the ICDF up to 31st January 2011.
Estimated time spent.
a. Clinical time - Probably a session a week for about 6 clinicians and double this for the panel chair (mostly outside office hours)
b. Cancer network pharmacy advice - estimate of 1.5 days per week.
c. Specialised Commissioning estimates – 2 days per week @ band 7, .5 day per week band 5, .5 day per week pharmacy advice/management.
d. SHA – input from public health, medical director, Communications lead and FoI lead, – time commitment varies, at least a day a week overall and increasing.
4. Please confirm the name of the current Chair of the ICDF committee for your region and the composition of the ICDF committee by job title.
5. Please confirm whether minutes of ICDF committee meetings are produced and provide copies of those minutes ( please redact any personal patient information).
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To ensure timely decisions, the ICDF operates by email and does not produce minutes. For each application views are sought from panel members and a consensus decision reached. If an application is refused, the chair will feed back the rationale to the clinician applicant. If the clinician decides to ask the SHA to review a decision, the chair’s comments and email exchange is used by to assess whether the application was handled in accordance with the principles and processes of the fund (document on website).
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The SHA does produce minutes of its Review Panel meetings, two of which have been held. As these concern individual applications, we believe that theexemption available to us under Section 40 (2) of the FOIA is engaged in this instance. Section 40 applies to third party personal data and is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA if disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles contained within Part 1 of Schedule One under Section 4 (1) and (2) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). Such information would not be released under the FOIA unless there was a strong public interest.
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One of the main differences between the FOIA and the DPA is that any information released under the FOIA is released into the public domain, not just the individual requesting the information and disclosure under the Act must be made with that in mind. As such, any release that identifies an individual through releasing their personal data, even third party personal data, is exempt.
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All persons whose personal data is processed by NHS East Midlands, regardless of whether they be patients, staff or members of the public, have an intrinsic right to privacy and these rights are protected by virtue of the DPA. Release of the information subject to the exemption is likely to compromise those rights.
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The Section 40 exemption is an absolute exemption which means that it is not necessary to carry out a public interest test.
Request Number 2
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the total number of applications submitted to your Cancer Drugs Fund and the total number of approved applications for each month up to the 31st January 2011.
A monitoring report detailing the monthly and cumulative fund activity is published on our website at http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/interim-cancer-drug-fund/
You requested detailed information for each individual application made during the first 4 months of the ICDF ( i.e. 1st October 2010 to 31st January 2011):
1) - The name of the drug requested
2) - The indication it was requested for
3) - The date the application was received by the ICDF
4) - The date a decision was notified to the referring Clinician
5) - The outcome of that decision; whether it was funded or not
6) - Confirmation if the application had been ‘fast tracked’ direct to the ICDF, or, if the application had initially been considered and refused by a Primary Care Trust.
7) - The total spend from your ICDF allocation, on Cancer drugs for the period 1st October 2010 to 31st January 2011.
This includes an estimate of the funds committed up to end of January 2011, invoices for £39, 751 had been paid from the ICDF fund.
I hope that this information is of use. If you are dissatisfied with the way in which we have dealt with your request you can ask us to review our decision by writing to:-
Mr Moosa Patel
Director of Corporate Affairs
NHS East Midlands
Octavia House
Interchange Business Park
Bostock's Lane
Sandiacre
Nottingham
NG10 5QG
If at the conclusion of any review you remain dissatisfied you may complain to the Information Commissioner who can be contacted at:-
The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
