FOI 25-055 Emergency Discharges from Borders General
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-055 Emergency Discharges from Borders General
- Request Date
- 03 Feb 2025
- Response Date
- 03 Mar 2025
- Information Requested
Emergency Ambulance Use for Discharges from Borders General Hospital, I am requesting information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 regarding the use of emergency ambulance resources for patient discharges from Borders General Hospital. Please provide the following information:
1. The number of patient discharge journeys from Borders General Hospital that were tasked to an Emergency Ambulance (A&E) resource for each financial year (April to March) for the following periods: • April 2021 – March 2022 • April 2022 – March 2023 • April 2023 – March 2024 • April 2024 – January 2025 (latest available data)
2. The total time in hours that Borders-based A&E resources have spent on these discharge journeys for each of the above periods.
3. A breakdown of this data by financial year, confirming that it includes only Borders-based A&E resources and does not include Patient Transport Service (PTS) or other ambulance resources.
4. The cost implications of using A&E ambulances for discharge work, including: • The estimated financial cost associated with these tasks (e.g., fuel, staffing, and operational costs). • Any internal cost analysis or reviews conducted on the impact of diverting A&E resources for patient discharges. • Any policies or guidance related to the use of A&E ambulances for non-emergency discharges. I look forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.- Response
Please see the sheet attached detailing the number of emergency ambulance only discharges and total service time in hours from Borders General hospital between 01/04/2021 - 31/01/2025.
It is important to note – A&E vehicles would only be used for hospital discharges where a more appropriate vehicle is not available; this would usually be during nightshift. Hospital discharges are given low-priority and an A&E vehicle will not be diverted away from a higher priority call to attend. There is no written policy or guidance within the Scottish Ambulance Service on these calls.
The Scottish Ambulance Service implemented the Clinical Response Model which helps to categorise calls, more information can be found on our website Unscheduled Care Operational Statistics. Calls for hospital discharges that are assigned to A&E vehicles are given a routine category, lowest. If the clinical demand is too high for greater priority incidents, this routine white call would be assigned to a Patient Transport Vehicle when one is available.
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not categorise costs in a way that would allow us to report specifically on the expense of emergency ambulance discharges.
Public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request. There’s a distinction between creating new information, and compiling information. Where a request can be answered by compiling information from readily available resources held by the public authority, this is not the same as creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex judgement, the information is not held. To answer the request of cost associated with emergency discharges would require the Scottish Ambulance Service to each incident and cross-check it with each invoice and expense all of which are held on multiple systems. I have concluded that, we are unable to produce this information without complex skill and judgement. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 as information not held.
- Response Documents
