Off island treatment for assault victims (FOI)

Request

Can I have information on the following, please?

A

The number of people sent off Island for treatment following assaults / alleged assaults in each year since 2014 to date.

B

Where the treatment was carried out.

C

Synopsis of injuries sustained.

Response

A to C

The Patient record system used within the Emergency Department (ED) does record codes for assault but Jersey Emergency Transfer Services (JETS) do not record assault as a specific category, only diagnosis, which would not give sufficient data to provide a response to this request.

The request asks for data from 2014 with treatment and outcome synopsis for those flown off the island. This would require a manual search of each episode admitted to ED, and further cross reference with JETS information from 2014 to date.

Estimating 10 mins to read through each assault admission entry within ED and thereafter cross reference with JETS transfers and 10 mins to review each patient within the JETS system, it is estimated this search would take in excess of 90 hours. The department are therefore unable to provide the information requested within the time frame applied by the Freedom of Information Regulations.

Article applied
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.