Patient Travel - FOI Response Register

I would like to request the following information:

1.    Data regarding the number of Shetland patients receiving support from Patient Travel within Shetland between 2018 and present (2023) for each year separately.

See attached spreadsheet

NHS does not hold data that is an exact match for what you have requested.

The figures on the ‘Transport method’ sheet are the number of journeys (for example, flights, ferry crossings, etc.) rather than the number of patients who have received support from Patient Travel.

The figures in ‘Location’ sheet are the number of admissions of Shetland patients at locations outside of Shetland. Not all of these patients will have received support from Patient Travel. However, we have provided these figures as it is possible to break them down by postcode for question 2 (this is not possible with the figures on ‘Transport method’ sheet).

2.    Data regarding where the above patients came from in Shetland and where they were going to.

See attached spreadsheet ‘Location’ sheet

As noted above, these figures are not for patients who have received support from Patient Travel, but for the number of admissions of Shetland patients at locations outside of Shetland by registered address postcode area (ZE1, ZE2 or ZE3).

Where we have given <5 answers or redacted rows except for the total, this is because NHS Shetland considers that providing any more specific information carries a high risk of identifying individual patients. As such and in accordance with FOISA s 16(1), NHS Shetland confirms that it holds the information requested but that it is exempt from disclosure under FOISA s 38(1)(b) as read with s 38 (2A) as the information constitutes personal data and disclosure would breach the confidentiality of the data subjects.

3.    The NHS Shetland financial statistics/ reports on how much Shetland has spent on patient travel between 2018 and present (2023), and what percentages of the NHS budgets regards towards patient travel

See attached spreadsheet ‘Expenditure analysis’ sheet

4.    Any demographic data in existence regarding who is using patient travel (age, gender, ethnicity, religion)

In accordance with FOISA s 17(1), NHS Shetland confirms that it does not hold the information requested.

NHS Shetland do not record any demographics of patients using patient travel.

5.    Information regarding the most common transportation methods that NHS Shetland is funding and how often these methods are used by patients  between 2018 and present (2023).

See attached spreadsheet ‘Transport method’ sheet