Hospital Complaint For Breach Of Equality Act 2010

Fergie76

I got a reply from the Chairman of the Trust yesterday, saying I would have a response by close of business today. 11 minutes to go and still no sign of it...

Ralph-y

he probably does appointments to :eek:


ask campaign if his hospital is pushing the 'don't miss an appointment' ? :rotfl:

sorry ....... but I don't laugh at them then I would cry ...


Ralph:cool:

Fergie76

Just received a response from the CEO's PA:

[FONT=&quot]Further to your recent communications I write to confirm that the Trust is satisfied that it has responded to your “Freedom of Information” requests and the issues raised in your complaints. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The Trust has been approached by the Information Commissioner’s office and the Trust has responded. The Trust awaits further response from the Information Commissioner’s office and if required (by the ICO) we will respond further.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

So just replied with this:

Thank you for your response, however I don’t believe I have ever received a response to my letter of 16 Feb 15. Can you please forward it today, as promised by the Chairman Peter Worthington.

The only reply I have had from you regarding below, is where you have refused to answer the FOI at point 8, all other issues have not been resolved.

Just so you are in no doubt, the issues I believe to still be outstanding are:

The issue of the two letters from the Trust to APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd.

[FONT=&quot]I write in reply to your letter dated 29 Jan 15 and must express my extreme disappointment that yet again that you have failed to respond to a FOI request within the specified timescale. You cannot keep just ignoring the law like this. Can you please tell me what steps you are taking to ensure that you have robust procedure in place to deal with FOI requests within the specified timescales?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Your letter of 29 Jan 15, has a number of discrepancies in that it is called a Response to my FOI Requests, however it doesn’t actually address my FOI request in my letter dated 22 Dec 14, namely:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What due diligence has the Trust conducted on this GPEOL? Can you please supply under the FOI Act full unredacted copies of all correspondence between the Trust, APCOA and the Trust’s Solicitor’s where the GPEOL has been discussed?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Also, it has failed to deal with a number of other issues. The issues I still consider unresolved:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. The breach of the Equality Act 2010 by your Trust and lack of reasonable adjustment required by the Equality Act 2010.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. No all Terms and Conditions are displayed on your signs, namely nowhere does it state how much the parking charge is. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. As you have already stated APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd have no contract to operate on your land and the document that they allege gives them that authority does not exist.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. Even if there were a legally binding contract in place, it does not allow for the collection of parking charges. You then said you are relying on paragraph 5.3 of the Trust’s out of date Parking Policy. However, I feel you have been somewhat economical with the truth, as you reply says:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]• Paragraph 5.3 of the Trust’s Car Parking policy sets out that contravention of the parking procedures will lead to enforcement.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]However, what paragraph 5.3 actually states is:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Contraventions to parking procedures and regulations will result in the application of the Enforcement Policy detailed within each site specific contract.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And as we have already agreed on, the contract does not allow for the collection of parking charges.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. I asked for the Trusts Genuine Pre-Estimate of Cost (GPEOL) and not APCOA’s. I am well aware that APCOA’s claimed GPEOL is a work of fiction and not allowable by law and is routinely defeated at POPLA and the Small Claim’s Court.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Your Parking Policy is out of date and does not conform to Department of Health’s Guidance that was issued in August 2014. Although this is only guidance, the Department of Health expects all Trust’s to follow it unless they have good reason not to. What are your reasons for not following this guidance?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]6. Breaches of the BPA AOS Code of Practice by APCOA.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What I require from the Trust to satisfy my complaint is:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. To have on common policy for disabled patients and visitors regardless of whether they park in a disabled bay or not, as not to breach the Equality Act.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. Stop APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd illegally operating on your land.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. To stop issuing illegal parking charges at Northwick Park and St Marks Hospital immediately and to refund all illegally collected parking charges since they were introduced.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. Supply me a full breakdown of the Trust’s GPEOL.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Immediately review your Parking Policy to comply with the Department of Health’s guidance that was issued last August.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]6. Urgently, review your policy on dealing with complaints and FOI requests.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7. Implement procedures to endure that any parking contractors you employ in the future, abide by their own Trade Associations Code of Practice.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]8. Under the FOI Act supply me with full unredacted copies of all correspondence in whatever format you hold it, where parking policy discussed and all correspondence between yourself and all incarnations of APCOA. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

Looks like the LBA will be the next and final step...

ampersand

Well done again, Fergie - cogent, punchy, no wriggle-room[not that they're not inventive and creative in pursuance of same]
#
2 typos
-no. 7. 'ensure', not 'endure'.
-no.8 '[FONT=&quot]where parking policy is discussed[FONT=&quot] or mentioned, however fleeetingly[FONT=&quot][&suggestion].....
[FONT=&quot]#
[FONT=&quot]Again, &hands makin[FONT=&quot]g fast repeat contact:-)[/FONT][/FONT]
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

Herzlos

There's also 2 point 3's.

Looks good though.

Fergie76

Sent the Chairman another email this morning:

I was expecting a full reply by close of business on Friday, as you stated in the email below.

I am extremely disappointed to not have received your full reply as promised.

Can you please tell me when you will reply in full, addressing all the points and issues I have raised.

I require your full response by close of business today. I feel that you are not treating my complaint seriously and that your organisation think breaching the Equality Act is ok and that you are above the law and that scamming your patients and visitors is ok. Your organisation has treated my whole complaint with contempt and it has caused my seriously ill wife a great deal of stress.

Then got this reply from his PA @ 17.46:

I am following up on the response with our Director of Estates and Facilities, Paul Kingsmore and Patient Relations Manager, James Nugent and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

And then from Paul Kingsmore @ 18.12:

[FONT=&quot]Mr [FONT=&quot]XXXXXXX[/FONT] has had answers to all his questions where appropriate. He has been afforded every opportunity to resolve his issues including the offer of face to face meeting, given considerable information and data and where his information requests fall outside the scale of the FOI criteria an opportunity to pay for further work. We are awaiting the information commissioners formal response so until that is receive I suggest we make it clear that we will not be responding further on this issue. You will be aware that a large number of staff have been involved in this case and our approach has been fully agreed with our FOI lead. In the meantime we are pulling together an answer to the MPs request for information to comply with the complains timescale. Hope this helps. [/FONT]

I have already said to them I would be more than willing to meet face-to-face, if they cover my travelling cost. Have also said that I am open to a video conference via Skype or the like or a telephone conference.

I also don't care about the large number of staff that have been involved on the case and if they didn't try to rip me off, I wouldn't have to do any of this.

Now do I send the LBA off now or wait until my MP has had a response (due 17 Apr 15), bearing in mind I am going to be out the country from 17 Apr until possibly late August, give or take the odd week with work and internet connection will be intermittent at best.

Fruitcake

Fergie76 wrote: »

Sent the Chairman another email this morning:

Then got this reply from his PA @ 17.46:

And then from Paul Kingsmore @ 18.12:

I have already said to them I would be more than willing to meet face-to-face, if they cover my travelling cost. Have also said that I am open to a video conference via Skype or the like or a telephone conference.

I also don't care about the large number of staff that have been involved on the case and if they didn't try to rip me off, I wouldn't have to do any of this.

Now do I send the LBA off now or wait until my MP has had a response (due 17 Apr 15), bearing in mind I am going to be out the country from 17 Apr until possibly late August, give or take the odd week with work and internet connection will be intermittent at best.

I would suggest you send the LBA now. It may focus their minds.

Fergie76

I was just in the process of doing yet another response, but I think you may well be right.

I'll fine tune it tonight and get it sent off tomorrow.

I was gonna send this, but think I will not bother and go with the LBA:

I find the response below from Paul Kingsmore disappointing and insulting. I have not had answers to all my questions or else there would be no need for me to continue to complain. I told you in my email on Friday exactly what I considered to be outstanding and for the benefit of your staff and so that there is absolutely no misunderstanding I will repeat them again, later in this email.

You have not afforded me every opportunity to resolve the issues, as that is quite easy to do, by tackling the issues I have raised. With regard to meeting face-to-face, I accepted this offer in an email to the Trust at 1800 on 26 Nov 14 and failed to get a response. I also offered the opportunity of a phone conference or video conference, both of which were rejected by the Trust.

With regard to the amount of information that your Trust has supplied, it sounds as if you are trying to make it my fault that your Trust tried to scam me. If your Trust complied with the Equality Act 2010 and subsequently had appropriate contracts in place, this could have been over a long time ago. Even if, when I had raised my first complaint, if you had acknowledge your Trust was in the wrong, apologised, cancelled the ticket that you were trying to scam me with and put in place a policy to comply with the Equalities Act 2010, again I would have been happy. Therefore, you can’t blame me for the incompetence of your staff.

So, just to be clear the issues I still consider to be unresolved and require satisfactory answers too are:

1. As part of my first FOI request, I requested a copy of the contract between the Trust and APCOA Parking (UK) Limited; however, this does not exist. When I complained to the DVLA about this, APCOA Parking (UK) Limited provide two letters to the DVLA, dated 26 Apr 11 and 7 Jul 14. I would like to know what the status of these two letters are and why I was not supplies them as part of my FOI, seeing as them seem to be part of a contract amendment?

2. All points in my letter date 16 Feb 15, that I consider to be outstanding and the points I have raised to consider this complaint satisfied. For your ease here they are yet again:

[FONT=&quot]I write in reply to your letter dated 29 Jan 15 and must express my extreme disappointment that yet again that you have failed to respond to a FOI request within the specified timescale. You cannot keep just ignoring the law like this. Can you please tell me what steps you are taking to ensure that you have robust procedure in place to deal with FOI requests within the specified timescales?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Your letter of 29 Jan 15, has a number of discrepancies in that it is called a Response to my FOI Requests, however it doesn’t actually address my FOI request in my letter dated 22 Dec 14, namely:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What due diligence has the Trust conducted on this GPEOL? Can you please supply under the FOI Act full unredacted copies of all correspondence between the Trust, APCOA and the Trust’s Solicitor’s where the GPEOL has been discussed?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Also, it has failed to deal with a number of other issues. The issues I still consider unresolved:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. The breach of the Equality Act 2010 by your Trust and lack of reasonable adjustment required by the Equality Act 2010.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. No all Terms and Conditions are displayed on your signs, namely nowhere does it state how much the parking charge is. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. As you have already stated APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd have no contract to operate on your land and the document that they allege gives them that authority does not exist.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. Even if there were a legally binding contract in place, it does not allow for the collection of parking charges. You then said you are relying on paragraph 5.3 of the Trust’s out of date Parking Policy. However, I feel you have been somewhat economical with the truth, as you reply says:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]• Paragraph 5.3 of the Trust’s Car Parking policy sets out that contravention of the parking procedures will lead to enforcement.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]However, what paragraph 5.3 actually states is:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Contraventions to parking procedures and regulations will result in the application of the Enforcement Policy detailed within each site specific contract.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And as we have already agreed on, the contract does not allow for the collection of parking charges.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. I asked for the Trusts Genuine Pre-Estimate of Cost (GPEOL) and not APCOA’s. I am well aware that APCOA’s claimed GPEOL is a work of fiction and not allowable by law and is routinely defeated at POPLA and the Small Claim’s Court.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Your Parking Policy is out of date and does not conform to Department of Health’s Guidance that was issued in August 2014. Although this is only guidance, the Department of Health expects all Trust’s to follow it unless they have good reason not to. What are your reasons for not following this guidance?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]6. Breaches of the BPA AOS Code of Practice by APCOA.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What I require from the Trust to satisfy my complaint is:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1. To have on common policy for disabled patients and visitors regardless of whether they park in a disabled bay or not, as not to breach the Equality Act.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. Stop APCOA Parking (UK) Ltd illegally operating on your land.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3. To stop issuing illegal parking charges at Northwick Park and St Marks Hospital immediately and to refund all illegally collected parking charges since they were introduced.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4. Supply me a full breakdown of the Trust’s GPEOL.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5. Immediately review your Parking Policy to comply with the Department of Health’s guidance that was issued last August.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]6. Urgently, review your policy on dealing with complaints and FOI requests.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7. Implement procedures to endure that any parking contractors you employ in the future, abide by their own Trade Associations Code of Practice.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]8. Under the FOI Act supply me with full unredacted copies of all correspondence in whatever format you hold it, where parking policy discussed and all correspondence between yourself and all incarnations of APCOA. [/FONT]

In addition to the points above and due to the unreasonable behaviour of your Trust and as I stated in my email yesterday, this has caused my wife considerable stress, worry and hurt feelings. I feel this has exasperated her condition and as result deserves to be compensated for this. There is precedence for this and at the lower end of the scale sums of to £6000 may be awarded. Therefore, I require you to pay my wife a sum £5000 for distress, worry and hurt feelings.

To avoid legal action, which will incur your Trust more costs, I require a satisfactory response by close of business Friday 3 Apr 15.

bod1467

Other than needing to be proof-read for syntax and grammar (to not too, ensure not endure, Association's not Association, for a start) it looks fine to me.

waamo

They may well refuse to show correspondence with their solicitor. Such communication would have legal privalige and as such does not have to be disclosed.