Drafting the FOI requests

[Suzanne Yada]

This week we should start drafting the FOI requests and sending them
out. I only know the standard format for the U.S. What about others?

The info we need (and get the statistics within a 5-mile/8 km radius
of your campus so we can be consistent with each other):

* Ambulance response times
* Average cost of visit (if not to student, then to taxpayer)
* Number of clinicians per 100 students
* Population statistics over time for the campus
* Statistics like weight, pregnancy, AIDS diagnoses, gonnohrea/
syphillis, etc.

Here are the things we can find out without FOI:

* Distance to nearest hospital or clinic
* What services are available on-site

Anything else?

-Suzanne

[Mark Coughlan]

Most non-US countries won't have ambulance response time stats, if they do they wouldn't fall under the FOI Act - at least not in Ireland, and our system is based on the UK system which is loosely based on the US system, I believe. If those stats are available they'll be in the public domain or by request without FOI application, check with th local council, medical board or NHS centre would be my advice.

Average cost of visit may be refused on grounds of commercial sensitivity, especially if the hospital is a private/public hospital like the ones we have here. In the UK that data may only be obtainable for regional or county area - though I'm not 100% sure on that.

Clinicians per 100 students wouldn't require FOI, simply call the clinic and ask how many doctors/nurses they employ, tell them you're working on a project on local health services (which you are, of course. They should be able to tell you within a day or so. If the reception desk plays dumb ask for someone in the finance section, they should know how many doctors etc they're writing cheques to each week. Then call the University and ask how many students are registered and cross-reference the two figures.

"Population stats over time" would need to be more specified for an FOI request, if you send in an application you want it as refined as possible otherwise you'll get a bomb of documents in your letterbox only 10% of which will be useful to you. Again I'm wonder if this type of stat would be available specifically for a university outside the US. Still, always worth asking, the worst they can say is "no".

Good luck,

Mark

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Suzanne Yada <suzan...@gmail.com> wrote:

This week we should start drafting the FOI requests and sending them out. I only know the standard format for the U.S. What about others?

The info we need (and get the statistics within a 5-mile/8 km radius of your campus so we can be consistent with each other):

* Ambulance response times
* Average cost of visit (if not to student, then to taxpayer)
* Number of clinicians per 100 students
* Population statistics over time for the campus

* Statistics like weight, pregnancy, AIDS diagnoses, gonnohrea/syphillis, etc.

Here are the things we can find out without FOI:

* Distance to nearest hospital or clinic
* What services are available on-site

Anything else?

-Suzanne

--
Mark Coughlan
0879431203
www.markcoughlan.com
www.irishelection.com

[Greg Linch]

Something else to consider is that -- at least where I've lived -- most "ambulance" services are private contractors and the only data you'd likely be able to get through FOI is for fire-rescue and other public agencies.

Best,
Greg