Publication Scheme

The Publication Scheme is a guide to the information routinely published by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. It is a description of the information about the Trust that is made publicly available. The Trust reviews the Scheme at regular intervals and monitors how it is operating.

The Publication Scheme helps individuals to find information which the Trust publishes. The Freedom of Information Act does not change the right of patients to protection of their patient confidentiality in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and common law. Maintaining the legal right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment by the Trust.

We routinely publish information in the following classes:

How we fit into the NHS structure

  • Information about the structure of the NHS in England is available from “About the NHS” pages of the NHS Website.
  • Information about the structure of the NHS in Wales is available from the NHS Wales website.
  • Information about the roles and functions of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is available from the About The Trust section of this website.  This includes the Statutory Basis of the Trust (e.g. our Establishment Order).
  • Other information about our role and functions (e.g. our Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions) is regularly published within the Trust Board Papers.

Organisational structure

  • Information about the structure of the Trust is available from the Trust Board section of this website, as well as within our Annual Reports.
  • Information about the job roles in the Trust and how much they are paid is available from the Trust Board section of this website. This list is normally updated by 30 June for the preceding year.

Lists of and Information Relating to Organisations With Which the Authority Works in Partnership

  • We work in partnership with a wide range of organisations to plan and provide health services.  Our main partners are listed on the Useful Contact Details page.

Trust Board Members and Other Senior Staff

  • The names of the members of the Trust Board are available from the Trust Board section of this website.  Biographical information, including any declared interests, is available within the papers for the Trust Board.
  • Information about the expenses of senior members of the Trust is published annually (by 30 June for the preceding year) and is available from the Trust Board section of this website.
  • Information about the salaries, benefits in kind and NHS pension entitlements of members of the Trust Board are available in our Annual Reports.  The Annual Report is normally published by 31 July for the preceding year.
  • Names of other senior clinicians and managers are also available from the Trust Board section of this website.

Location and Contact Details for Our Main Departments

  • Information about our main departments is available from the Wards and Services section of this website.

Activity

  • Information about the inpatient and outpatient activity for both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital is published in our Annual Report.

Estates and Facilities

  • We publish an annual schedule of information relating to our Estates and Facilities through the national ERIC (Estates Return Information Collection) data collection programme. This includes information about Fire Safety, Cleanliness, Laundry & Linen, Age Profile of Buildings, Quality of Buildings, Energy, Water Services, Waste, Car Parking and Food.

Communications with General Practitioners

  • The Trust has a GP Liaison Service to support two-way communication with local GPs who refer patients to our services.  This includes a regular GP Connect newsletter as well as other information and communications.

Expenditure

Annual Statement of Accounts, Budgets and Variance Reports

  • Our Annual Accounts are available from the Annual Report section of our website.
  • Budget information and financial reports are considered at every meeting of the Trust.  These can be found in the Trust Board papers.

Financial Audit Reports

  • The Trust receives a range of reports from our internal and external auditors.  The Annual Audit Letter is published on our website and can be viewed in our Annual Reports. Other reports are also presented to the Trust Board and can be found in the Trust Board papers.

Standing Financial Instructions

  • Our Standing Financial Instructions are approved by the Trust Board. Please see our Trust Board papers for details.

Capital Programme

  • Our Capital Programme is approved by the Trust Board, and periodic updates are also presented to Trust Board meetings for information and approval. Please see our Trust Board papers for details.

Board Members’ Allowances

  • Information about the allowances received by Trust Board members can be found in the Annual Report.

Staff Pay and Grading Structures

  • The majority of non-medical staff are paid according to the Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions. Information about these Terms and Conditions (including pay scales) is available from the NHS Employers website. A small number of non-medical staff who were employed prior to the introduction of Agenda for Change have chosen to retain their previous terms and conditions. All new appointments are made using Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions.
  • Medical staff contracts are governed by the national Consultant Contract. Information about the Consultant Contract is available from the Department of Health website.
  • Monitoring reports on staff pay and other HR performance issues are presented to every Trust Board meeting as part of our Finance and Performance reports
  • A schedule of the pay grades of every role in the Trust is available from the Trust Board section of our website.

Funding

  • The majority of our funding comes from local commissioners of health services including Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS England and Powys Teaching Local Health Board (see the Useful Contact Details for information about these organisations). More detailed information about our income is included in our Annual Budget, which can be found in the Trust Board papers.

Procurement and Tendering Procedures

  • Information about our procurement and tendering procedures can be found in our Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions.  These are updated periodically and can be found in the Trust Board papers.

Details of Contracts Currently Being Tendered

  • Information about contracts awarded and contract opportunities can be found on the Shropshire Healthcare Procurement Service section of the website.
  • This site gives specific information on all Contracts Awarded by the Trust.
  • There is also a comprehensive list of Current Contracting Opportunities.

Annual Report

  • Our Annual Report outlines progress against our main targets and priorities. This is available from the Annual Report section of this website.

Annual business plan, Mission, Vision, Values and Objectives

  • Our corporate plan (including mission, vision, values and objectives) is approved every year by the Trust Board and can be found in the Trust Board Papers.
  • Further information is also available from the Vision and Values section of this website.

Performance against targets

The Trust publishes information relating to Performance and Standards in the Trust via the Performance and Standards page.

A summary of performance against key targets is provided every year in our Annual Report.

More detailed progress reports are presented to each meeting of the Trust Board in the Integrated Performance Report. These are available from the Trust Board Papers section of the website.

Information about a wide range of performance issues can also be found through other publicly-available data sources.

  • Information on A&E waiting times, bed availability, cancelled operations, general waiting times, friends and family test and a wide range of other data is presented in the Integrated Performance Report at every meeting of the Trust Board, and is also available from the NHS England Statistics website.
  • Monthly information about waiting times by specialty from referral to treatment for consultant-led treatment is available from the NHS England Statistics website.
  • Information about Healthcare Estates and Facilities and other data are published by the Department of Health.
  • External validation and assessment of the quality of our services is undertaken by the Care Quality Commission – available from the Care Quality Commission website.
  • A wide range of performance and activity data is available from NHS Digital.
  • The NHS Choices website provides a summary of healthcare performance by organisation including safe staffing, waiting times, Friends & Family Test and much more.

Infection Prevention and Control

  • Regular updates on MRSA bacteraemia and C diff cases diagnosed in the Trust are included the Integrated Performance Report. These are available from the Trust Board Papers section of the website.
  • Detailed information about Infection Prevention and Control including an analysis of cases of MRSA bacteraemia and C diff during the year can be found in the Infection Prevention and Control Annual Report which is available from the Infection Prevention and Control section of our website.

Clinical Governance

  • The Trust Board receives an annual report on Clinical Governance to the Trust Board.  This report is available with the Trust Board Papers.
  • The annual report on Clinical Governance includes an overview of incidents in the Trust, including a summary of serious untoward incidents during the year. This report is available with the Trust Board Papers.

Audit reports

  • The Annual Audit Letter from our external auditors is available from the Annual Report section of this website.

Strategies and related documents

We publish a range of strategies, including:

  • IM&T strategy
  • People strategy

Service User Surveys

The Trust receives feedback from patients in a variety of ways. These include:

  • A regular Friends and Family Test to gather feedback from our patients.
  • A report on Patient Experience is presented to the Trust Board every four months.  This is available with the Trust Board Papers.
  • External surveys are undertaken by the Care Quality Commission. Information about these surveys is available from the Care Quality Commission website. Actions plans in response to patient surveys are presented to the Trust Board and can be found in the Trust Board Papers.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

  • The Trust publishes an annual schedule of data and confidentiality incidents in its Annual Report. This sets out the number of incidents and describes the type of incident (e.g. unauthorised disclosure, loss of inadequately protected electronic equipment). Our Annual Reports are available from the Annual Reports page.

Board papers – agenda, supporting papers and minutes

  • The Trust Board is responsible for all decisions made within the Trust. Trust Board Papers are published on this website, along with the minutes of the Committees of the Trust Board (e.g. Audit Committee, Hospital Executive Committee).
  • Information about how the Trust Board makes decisions can be found in the Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions. These are updated periodically, and presented for approval to the Trust Board. The most recent version can be found with the Trust Board Papers.

Involving patients and the public

Framework of Values

  • The Trust has adopted a Framework of Values that guide decision-making in the Trust.  More information is available from the Vision and Values section of this website.

Policies and procedures relating to the conduct of business and the provision of services

  • The main corporate policies of the Trust require the approval of the Trust Board and can therefore be found in the papers for meetings of the Trust Board.

Policies and procedures relating to human resources, recruitment and employment

  • Human Resources policies and procedures are available to all staff through our internal Intranet pages.
  • Information about our recruitment processes is also available from the Recruitment section of this website.
  • Information about equality and diversity is available from the Equality and Diversity section of this website

Standing financial instructions and Standing orders

  • Our standing financial instructions and standing orders are updated periodically and can be found in the Trust Board Papers.

Payment Terms

  • Payment terms are immediate unless otherwise stated.
  • The Trust reserves the right to charge interest and a collection fee of £20 or 10% of the invoice value (whichever is the greater) on all accounts which are overdue for payment.
  • These terms and conditions of settlement for Health Care Purchasers are strictly in accordance with Department of Health Guidelines.

Compliments, concerns and complaints

  • Information about making compliments, concerns or compliments can be found in the Information for Patients section of our website. This includes our policies for handling complaints.
  • Information about how to nominate staff for the Chairman’s Award can be found in the Awards section of our website.

Charging regimes and policies

  • Information about charges we may make for the provision of information is available from the main FOI page of this website.

 Data Sharing

Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) help organisations identify, assess and mitigate or minimise privacy risks with data processing activities. They are particularly relevant when a new data processing process, system or technology is being introduced.

DPIAs also supports the accountability principle of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT), as they help organisations comply with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance with the law.

A DPIA is a proforma or risk assessment which asks questions about the process or new system based on data quality / data protection / information security and technology.

Further information on DPIAs can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website and information relating to the DSPT can be found on the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit Website.

To request a copy of a specific DPIA, please submit a Freedom of Information request to sath.foi@nhs.net.

The Trust publishes a log of organisations that it shares data with in the Data Sharing Agreements (DSA) Register.

For further information on Data Sharing please contact the Information Governance Manager via Tel: 01952 641222.

We publish the following lists and registers:

Our Clinical Services

Information about our clinical services is available from the Wards and Services section of this website

Our Non-Clinical Services

We publish a range of information about our non-clinical services, including:

  • Information about our HR services and Recruitment.
  • Information about our Patient Services team (including Patient Advice and Liaison Services, access to medical records, and advice for overseas visitors) is available in our advice and support section.
  • Information about the training of undergraduate medical students at the Shropshire Campus of the Keele University School of Medicine – in the Undergraduate Students section
  • Information about our work to promote Equality and Diversity, including our Single Equalities Scheme and Equality Impact Assessments – in the Equality and Diversity section

Services for which we charge a fee

Please follow the links below for information about services for which a fee is charged:

  • The Trust hosts the Shropshire and Mid Wales Fertility Centre, which offers NHS and private fertility treatment
  • There is a charge for  car parking for patients and visitors, with a wide range of concessions available – see the car parking section of the website for more information.

This list is not exhaustive. Please refer to individual wards and departments for information about non-NHS services that can be offered at an additional fee.

Patient information leaflets and other booklets and newsletters

A range of patient information leaflets can be obtained from individual wards and departments.

Patient Advice and Liaison Services

The Trust provides a Patient Advice and Liaison Service. More information about this service is available from the PALS section of the website.

Corporate communications & media releases

The Trust publishes media releases and other corporate communications:

  • Latest News Items
  • Information about other corporate communications is available from the News and Media section of the website

Marketing, including Marketing Communications

The Trust publishes a Marketing Strategy which sets out our marketing goals and priorities.  This is updated periodically and approved by the Trust Board.