Consultant fees for PCR tests (FOI)

Request

I had a PCR test prior to a hospital procedure. I received an invoice for £113 payable to Dr I Muscat. I see in the header for the invoice 'Microbiology Services' and that Dr Ivan Muscat is a Consultant, so I take it he has that relationship with States of Jersey, hence the payments go to him rather than Government of Jersey (GOJ).

My questions are:

A

How much money has been paid to Dr I Muscat by GOJ for PCR tests?

B

How much has Dr I Muscat been paid in total by GOJ since March 2020?

C

How much money has been billed to patients for General Hospital procedure PCR tests?

D

How much money has Dr I Muscat paid to GOJ to cover their part in administering the PCR test at the Covid testing centre, and GOJ admin costs of this work?

Response

A to D

Following an extensive review of systems, it has been concluded that the information, as requested, is not held in recorded form. In order to answer the request the data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated, aside from taking more than the prescribed 12.5 hours to do that work, the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data in order to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

It should be noted however that all such business costs are fully audited.

Please also note the response provided by the Minister for Health and Social Services to a written question on 6 October 2020 in the following link.

WQ.362/2020

The response to a Ministerial Written Question is copied below. It should be noted that the only difference since then is that the vast majority, if not all, tests are now undertaken on Island.

‘Covid PCR tests have now been added to the repertoire of hospital-agreed tests administered through pathology services to private patients. Others would be blood tests or tissue biopsies, for example. The vast majority receiving such Covid PCR tests are pre-operative private patients. Such screening tests would need to be done before surgery or on admission whether the patient having the operation is private or public. The tests are processed in the normal way ie through public facilities and, as always, only urgent samples are being done on-Island. The charge for the test of £113 is split between the hospital and the consultant with the cost of the test fully met. The number of such tests is relatively small and does not detract from the non-private response.’

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.