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Waiting List Deaths 2023 and of which 18+ weeks waited

Reference: 23-24509

Date response sent: 08/03/2024

Details of enquiry

I am writing to request, under the Freedom of Information Act, i) the number of patients who died in 2023 while waiting to receive planned care at your trust and ii) how many of those patients had been waiting for more than 18 weeks.

Response sent

The Trust routinely receives Freedom of Information requests about deaths of service users and potential causes, including those on the waiting list for treatment, linked to the whole Trust or just specific services and recognises the significant public interest argument linked to disclosure of this information.

This must be balanced with the reality that, as the Trust only provides non-acute outpatient services, we do not hold exact numbers for deaths as there is no obligation on other agencies to check/ notify us of all such instances. We are therefore reliant on provision of such information, often very belatedly, at various periods after the death of a service user; from family, friends, other healthcare agencies – some of whom may have been the patient’s main healthcare provider.

Over two years ago, the Trust changed its presentation of mortality data, to prevent the possibility of individuals being identified through triangulation of data, due to the low number of service users who may be referenced. Accordingly, the Trust no longer splits its mortality data by department, waiting list, active patients, or any other parameters (see point 1. below for more on this point)

Mortality data, (suicide, death by natural causes, death from other causes) is now only published cyclically on our website, within the Annual Reports and Quality accounts, and the quarterly Board Meeting papers, all publicly available via the links below, covering mortality data since 2014. Another reference point is the FOI disclosure log, containing records of all substantive FOI requests/responses since April 2016 and includes a number of requests around deaths and suicide data. These may be reached via the following links:

The rationale for this approach is:

  1. The Trust now follows guidance from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on disclosure control to protect confidentiality within death statistics, and the Trust will not report mortality numbers by service, due to risks of identification of the low number of service users referenced.

Practical examples of where this has been applied elsewhere are:

  • National Confidentiality Inquiry in Suicide and Safety in Mental Health
  • Ministry of Defence Suicides in the UK regular armed forces: Annual summary and trends over time 1 January 1984 to 31 December 2020
  • Any statistics that are under five will only be referenced as <5
  1. The Trust now complies with “The revised guidance on reporting suicide and severe self-harm to NRLS for all providers except those providing specialist mental health services” issued by the National Patients Safety Agency (2012).
    • Other providers would meet their responsibilities by ensuring they pass on any information that indicates suicide or self-harm to the relevant specialist mental health trust so they can report it
  2. This means that, retrospectively, the Trust’s mortality data can change over time.
    • Due to the nature of its services, the Trust may generally only hold mortality data provided to it, and where it may take up to 2/3 years for to be validated and/or made available
    • A patient’s death may be unrelated to Trust service provision, and due to other causes, eg cancer, .
  3. This means that when the coroner contacts the Trust and states that ‘Action Should be Taken’, the Trust will respond within the required framework
  4. Whenever Inquests are held, linked to a Prevention of Future Deaths report (Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths), the name of the deceased will be published and placed into the public domain, however the Trust does not publish this level of detail, because it is publicly accessible via other means, which under FOIA s21 means that it does not have to be provided again by the Trust.
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