FOI – 2023-000227 Minutes from Biannual Radiotherapy Physicists Group meeting in 1987 (HTML)
Date received – 22 June 2023 | Date responded – 10 July 2023
Request
In 1987 I attended two meetings of the Biannual Radiotherapy Physicists Group meeting with the Common Services Agency (your predecessor), at which funding was awarded for travel expenses for a Scottish Radiotherapy Physics Audit. As you will see from the attached letter which I wrote to (and was published in) the British Medical Journal, this funding set the ball rolling for this Audit to roll out to all of the UK and, in turn, lead to the discovery of the “Exeter incident” radiotherapy overdoses, involving 207 patients.
Can you please assist me by finding and forwarding the two sets of minutes from 1987 at which this funding was agreed as I’d like to quote from these in the article which I’m currently writing, or does this require a Freedom of Information request (even though I attended the group meetings and the minutes were later circulated to attendees)?
Response
I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 22 June 2023 requesting the following information.
I am currently undertaking some research work for an article which I am writing for submission to SCOPE Journal (published by the Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine).
In 1987 I attended two meetings of the Biannual Radiotherapy Physicists Group meeting with the Common Services Agency (your predecessor), at which funding was awarded for travel expenses for a Scottish Radiotherapy Physics Audit. As you will see from the attached letter which I wrote to (and was published in) the British Medical Journal, this funding set the ball rolling for this Audit to roll out to all of the UK and, in turn, lead to the discovery of the “Exeter incident” radiotherapy overdoses, involving 207 patients.
Can you please assist me by finding and forwarding the two sets of minutes from 1987 at which this funding was agreed as I’d like to quote from these in the article which I’m currently writing, or does this require a Freedom of Information request (even though I attended the group meetings and the minutes were later circulated to attendees)?
I can advise you that we have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:
Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA) an organisation does not have to provide any information if it does not hold that information. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) has completed a search of records and can confirm this information is not held within our filing structure.
I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.
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