Ambulance callout costs and Gynaecologist waiting times (FOI)

Request

A

How much money does it cost for the deployment of one ambulance to a 999 home call? Please provide a breakdown if possible ie how many staff per ambulance and their costs.

B

How much money does one appointment with a Gynaecologist cost at the general hospital?

C

What was the average waiting time for a Gynaecology appointment in 2018?

D

What was the average waiting time for a Gynaecology appointment in 2019?

E

What was the average waiting time for a Laparoscopy (Gynaecology related) in 2018?

F

What was the average waiting time for a Laparoscopy (Gynaecology related) in 2019?

G

What is the cost (on average if necessary) for one individual to use a bed for three hours in A&E? Please provide a breakdown if possible, ie weekends higher cost, nights and so on.

Response

The answers to questions A, B and G relate to 2017 costs. This being the most complete costing dataset currently available from the Person Level Information and Costing System (PLICS).

A

The average cost of an Emergency and Urgent category dispatched ambulance in 2017 was £282. Broken down as follows:

• frontline ambulance staff: £197

• other support staff: £35

• non-staff expenditure: £50 Including clinical supplies, fleet maintenance and overhead costs such as training and corporate overheads.

• ambulance crews of a minimum of two members of frontline staff, can be made up of a combination of Operations Manager, Lead Paramedics, Paramedics or Ambulance Technicians. The different combinations will result in a different cost for that deployment. A paramedic and technician crew costs the least and an Operations Manager and Lead Paramedic costs the most.

B

The average cost of a face to face, first outpatient appointment with a Consultant Gynaecologist was £262 in 2017. This includes all costs associated with the appointment such as Medical Staff costs, supporting nursing staff, requested radiology or pathology diagnostics, Consultant drug prescriptions and other support and overhead costs.

C and D

Average Waiting Time for a Gynaecology Appointment Split by Clinician Priority:

E and F

It is not possible to provide the information requested as waiting lists are not managed at procedure level (only specialty which is provided in C and D above).

G

The average cost of an Emergency Department (ED) attendance in 2017 was £164. Broken down as follows:

• ED Medical Staff: £65

• ED Nursing Staff: £45

• ED Other Staff: £10

• drugs: £3

• diagnostic Services (Radiology, Pathology, Clinical Investigations): £13

• non-Staff Expenditure: £28

The cost of an Emergency Department attendance varies depending on the presenting complaint, diagnostics requested and any interventions and drug issues that occur within the attendance, more so than time in the department. For this reason time is not applied in the costing system and it has been estimated that it would not be possible to provide the requested data within the time allocated to Freedom of Information responses pursuant to the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014

Articles 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.