NHS Lothian Serious Adverse Event Reviews (SAER): FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002


Information requested

1. How many SAERs have been raised each year within NHS Lothian, over the past 5 years, including 2024 to date?

2. What categorisation can be provided for these SAERs? For example, by Medical Discipline…. ENT, Cardiology, Urology etc.

3. What is the average time taken for conducting the review, from initiating incident to Board sign off?

4. Are the reviews categorised, or summarised to identify the key outcomes arising, clearly excluding any personal confidential information?

Response

I can confirm the Scottish Government holds some of the information you requested. I have answered each part of your request individually.

How many SAERs have been raised each year within NHS Lothian, over the past 5 years, including 2024 to date?

I can confirm the Scottish Government holds some of this information. In this instance, however, the Scottish Government does not hold the information requested before 1 January 2020 or information beyond February 2024. The table below contains the information we do hold.

Year

Significant Adverse Event Reviews commissioned

2020

86

2021

76

January 2022 and February 2022

20

March 2022 to February 2023

84

March 2023 to February 2024

91

What categorisation can be provided for these SAERs? For example, by Medical Discipline….ENT, Cardiology, Urology etc.

I can confirm the Scottish Government holds some of the information you requested. A list of the specialties is below, this covers the period from 1 January 2020 to early March 2022. The Scottish Government does not hold any further information on specialties for SAERs commissioned by NHS Lothian from early March 2022 to November 2024.

Where there are five or fewer SAERs linked to a specialty, these have not been included below as that could be person identifiable information.

Accident and emergency
Acute medicine
Maternity and obstetrics
Mental health
Neonatal
Paediatric
Surgical

What is the average time taken for conducting the review, from initiating incident to Board sign off?

I can confirm the Scottish Government holds the information you requested. From 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2024, the mean average time taken to complete a significant adverse event review for NHS Lothian was 230 working days.

Are the reviews categorised, or summarised to identify the key outcomes arising, clearly excluding any personal confidential information?

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the specific information you have requested. However, you may wish to contact NHS Lothian directly at loth.freedomofinformation@nhs.scot as they may hold the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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