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Waiting Room Software

Reference: 24-25159

Date response sent: 09/08/2024

Details of enquiry

I wish to find out the following information about the NCL Waiting Room website which I believe your Trust manages. I would wish to know;

  1. How much has the platform cost from inception until 30 June 2024 inclusive.
  2. How many unique users the site receives on an average month
  3. How many unique users the site received between 1 Jan and 30 June 2024
  4. Other usage stats including; Pageviews, bounce rate and engagement for the same time periods
  5. How many Trusts and other providers have access to the system

Response sent

  1. How much has the platform cost from inception until 30 June 2024 inclusive.

The Trust confirms that it holds this information, however we are unable to share this information as it is deemed a trade secret under s43 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Section 43 of the Act states that:

(1) Information is exempt information if it constitutes a trade secret.

(2) Information is exempt if its disclosure under FOIA would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).

Section 43 is a qualified exemption and is subject to a public interest test, whereby arguments for withholding the information outweigh the public interest (ie what is in the public interest, and not what is interesting to the public) in disclosing it.

A public interest test has been carried out.

Public Interest in favour of releasing the costs incurred:

Ensuring that the Trust can be held accountable for its decisions, particularly as to how it spends public money.

Public Interest in favour of withholding the costs incurred

a. Commercially confidential information on product development costs must be protected from disclosure for the duration of the product development phase, during pre-marketing activities, and initial years of operations with Healthcare organisations.

b. Product Development Costs are a business secret, such as how much money the Trust has been spending on product development,

c. The software tool is a new and unique product to be launched on the market place. Its development costs are a commercially confidential trade secret, which if released could affect its pricing strategy, such as how much the Trust plans to charge for licenses.

d. Maintaining a competitive market and driving any competition could be threatened by disclosure of development costs

Balance of Public Interest

On balance of the factors considered above, we have found the balance of public interest to be in favour of withholding development costs.

  1. How many unique users the site receives on an average month

>circa1k unique users per month

  1. How many unique users the site received between 1 Jan and 30 June 2024

>6k unique users in that 6 month period

  1. Other usage stats including; Pageviews, bounce rate and engagement for the same time periods
  • >16k Page Views
  • Average Engagement Time = 56s
  • Engagement Rate = 60%
  • Bounce Rate = 40%
  1. How many Trusts and other providers have access to the system

Our Trust, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust provides a managed service for this website. We deliver the website and its services to our local Integrated Care Board (ICB) members, and plan to sell it other ICB’s

The NCL Waiting Room currently serves the North Central London Integrated Care System.  This is made up of:

  • 3 Mental Health Trusts: The Tavistock and Portman NHSFT, The Whittington NHSFT and the North London Partners NHSFT,
  • 5 local authorities: Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey
  • approximately 60 clinical teams/services’ across those 8 organisations.

All patients of the above could visit the website, create their own accounts and log into the customer facing side of the platform.

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