Appointment of Professor Ashok Handa (FOI)

Request

Professor Ashok Handa has been employed by the Our Hospital project team as the clinical lead on the project, at a cost of £1,000 per day.

Can you please advise:

A

What exactly was the brief given to Professor Handa?

B

Who wrote and approved the brief?

C

Who exactly does Professor Handa report to? Is it just Caroline Landon or does he report to the POG?

D

When is Professor Handa's contract due to expire, given that he must have liaised with Consultants by now?

E

Why is Professor Handa pursuing details like the colour of the paint and wall art when:

i) the hospital has not even been designed yet

ii) this should surely be the remit of an experienced (and much cheaper) interior designer

Response

A

The Clinical Director’s brief is as follows:

• to provide liaison between Heads of Care Groups, Specialty clinical and service teams and the Project Team

• to advise the Project Board via Quality and Safety Care Group on potential patient safety risks

• to be a ‘critical reader’ of material produced in support of the Our Hospital Project (clinical department designs, feasibility of proposed services changes, workforce plans and so on)

• to be a member of key Assurance Committees supporting the Our Hospital Project and other groups such as the relocation works group, client project team forums, clinical forums and the Project Board

• to work with external non-clinical advisors as and when they contribute to the Project

• to support the final approval and sign off of department floor plans and other service plans with the relevant clinical and operational leads for those departments

• to provide assurance to the Medical Staff Committee and other clinical forums that the clinician voice continues to inform the Project and that patient safety and opportunities for clinical innovation remain guiding principles for the Project.

B

The brief for the role was written by the Project Team for Our Hospital and approved by them as the team responsible for delivery of the project.

C

On a day to day basis the Clinical Director reports to the Project Director. He is also accountable to the Director General for Health and Community Services (as the Senior Reporting Officer for the Our Hospital Project), to the Chief Executive Officer (who chairs the Senior Officer Steering Group) and to the Political Oversight Group.

D

The Clinical Director’s contract is due to expire in July 2022.

E

i) and ii): This aspect of the request poses a question and is not a request for information held in recorded form. In any event, this information is not held, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 therefore applies.

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.