Vasectomies - FOI Response Register

For each financial year from 2018/19 to 2023/24 (most recent):

1. The total number of referrals for a vasectomy.
2. The median wait (in days) for a vasectomy.
3. The longest completed waited (in days) for a vasectomy.
4. The longest ongoing wait (in days) for a vasectomy.

With regards to Q1-4, under FOISA s 14(2), NHS Shetland is not obliged to comply with a repeated request from the same requester, if it has recently complied with the original request.

Having reviewed your request, NHS Shetland has determined that the request is identical or substantially similar to your previous request of 19/10/2023 (FOI 2023-420) and so is unable to provide the information requested; we have provided further justification for this decision below:

In response to FOI 2023-420 we provided data for 2018/19-2023/24 (as of 31/10/2023). This data covers 5 of the 6 years requested here in full and the majority of the 6th year therefore this request is substantially similar to FOI 2023-420.

However please note that we would be happy to comply with a request that is not repeated and requests data we have not previously supplied e.g. for Nov 2023 - Mar 2024.

5. The number of vasectomy appointments cancelled by the health board (i.e. not by patients)

We are using OPCS4 code N17.

Please note figures provided below for appointments cancelled by the health board include cancellations for clinical reasons.

Where we have given <5 answers, NHS Shetland considers that providing more specific information carries a high risk of identifying individuals. 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.