FOI Team
e-Health Cumbria
Cumberland House
Carleton Clinic
Cumwhinton Drive
Carlisle
CA1 3SX
Direct Line: (01228) 60 2017
Email:
Our Ref: FRE001-1314-053
Date: 23 July 2013
Steve Hinks
Email:
Dear Mr Hinks,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST – FRE001-1314-053
In relation to your recent request for information received at this office on 25 June 2013 regarding HPV Vaccine Safety Advice. Please see our response below;
A Wigton school nurse attending a Fabricated or Induced Illness Strategy Meeting (at Wigton Hospital) on 17th October 2012 is attributed in the minutes of this meeting of having stated 'there were no health issues with the HPV vaccine'.
Please provide evidence of competence or training of the Wigton Hospital school nurse(s) to support the validity of this statement. In particular are they aware of the HPV vaccine Medicine Guide and its contents available on the NHS's own public web page or the 6000 plus Yellow Card reports submitted to the MHRA of adverse reactions concerning this vaccine?
Section 40(2) of the FOIA provides an exemption from disclosing personal information about other people if disclosure would breach the Data Protection Act 1998. The purpose of the Data Protection Act is to protect people's private information and to ensure that it is handled properly. In line with the Information Commissioner's Guidance, personal information of any other person must only be released if: the disclosure would not be unfair on the individual concerned; there is a legitimate
public interest in disclosure, and the disclosure is only to the extent necessary to meet this public interest; and the interest in disclosure outweighs any detriment to the individual's privacy or other rights and legitimate interests.
In this case, I have concluded that releasing ‘a Wigton school nurse’ training records would not constitute fair processing of personal data as the disclosure of that information into the public domain would be outside of their reasonable expectations.
There is a public interest in knowing that school nurses have the relevant skills to fulfil the requirements of their role. Therefore we have enclosed details of the training requirements of school nurses below:
School Nurse mandatory training as at October 2012
Equality and Diversity
Informed Consent to Treatment
Safeguarding Children for Child Focused Staff
Safeguarding Adults - Level 1
Risky Business
Slips, Trips and Falls
Local Fire Safety
Manual Handling Workplace
Infection Prevention and Control Level 1
Clinical Waste Management
Basic Life Support with Defibrillator
Information Governance
Clinical Records Keeping
Infection Prevention and Control Level 2
PMVA Level 1 plus Breakaway
Hand Hygiene
Vaccination & Immunisation
School Nurse Vaccination Update
The Vaccination & Immunisation Training and School Nurse Vaccination Update Training include:
INTRODUCTION TO VACCINATIONS TRAINING AND REFRESH
Mandatory Audience: Registered District Nurses and Registered School Nurses who are new to immunisations and will be vaccinating adults and children. All registered prison staff.
Refresh: All Health Visitors and Registered General Nurses who have attended formal vaccination training in the past and who need to continue administering vaccinations to adults and children. Please Note – Staff who have completed this course do not need to do a separate Flu Vaccinations course. School Nurses will undertake the School Nurse Vaccination Update course as their refresher.
Learning Purpose: To meet the Health Protection Agency minimum standards to enable Health Visitors, Registered staff to immunise patients.
Pre-requisites: None
Delivery Method: Face to face
Length: Initial: 2 days
Refresh: 1 day
Recurrence: The update must be completed annually
Completion and Assessment: On-going by trainer
Outcome: On completion of this course delegates will be able to continue to confidently, competently and effectively promote and/or administer vaccinations.
SCHOOL NURSE VACCINATIONS UPDATE
Mandatory Audience: Registered School Nurses who have attended formal vaccination training in the past and who need to continue administering vaccinations to school age children and to maintain their knowledge of the full National Immunisation programme for all ages.
Learning Purpose: To meet the Health Protection Agency minimum standards to enable Registered School Nurses to be able to immunise patients.
Pre-requisites: Staff members must have attended the Introduction to Vaccine training
Delivery Method: Face to face
Length: 1 day
Recurrence: Annual update required
Completion and Assessment: On-going by trainer
Outcome: On completion of this course delegates will be able to continue to confidently, competently and effectively promote and/or administer vaccinations to school age children
As part of the School Nurse Vaccination Training the Trust follows core immunisation training provided by the Health Protection Agency as mentioned above. The training material used can be seen at the following link:
http://www.hpa.org.uk/EventsProfessionalTraining/HealthProtectionAcademy/AdditionalOpportunitiesAndInformation/ImmunisationTrainingResources/
We have also enclosed guidance documents outlining the national standards for Immunisation and the Core Curriculum that the Vaccine Training our Trust provides is based on.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to request a review of our decision you should write to:
Yvonne Salkeld
Head of Information Governance
Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Cumberland House,
Cumwhinton Drive, Carleton Clinic
Carlisle
CA1 3SX
01228 603927
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have a right under section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to apply for a decision by the Information Commissioner as to whether we have properly dealt with your request. Please note that an application to the Information Commissioner may be refused if you have not exhausted any organisational review (complaint) procedure we provide, if there has been undue delay in making it, if the Information Commissioner considers your application is frivolous or vexatious or if your application has been withdrawn or abandoned. The Information Commission can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely
Sital Maisuria
FOI Officer
Information Governance
Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust