FOI – 2023-000399 Medical Equipment Expenditure (HTML)

Date received – 01 November 2023 | Date responded – 24 November 2023

Request

We are trying to establish the amount of money spent on medical equipment across Scotland across several years and are submitting an FOI to each Regional & a number of targeted Special Health Boards.

In addition to the absolute spend we are also trying to establish how much of this related to replacing existing equipment v’s expanding or adding capacity.

It would be helpful to analyse spend against the categories below but if this is not possible, please provide total information against a single line.

An excel file is provided attached to provide the information on

1. Please provide information on Capital spend in the following format for all years.
2. Please provide a best estimate of the total % spent replacing existing equipment as opposed to investing in additional capacity.

Response

I refer to your freedom of information request that we received on 01 November 2023 requesting the following information:

"We are trying to establish the amount of money spent on medical equipment across Scotland across several years and are submitting an FOI to each Regional & a number of targeted Special HealthBoards.

In addition to the absolute spend we are also trying to establish how much of this related to replacing existing equipment vs expanding or adding capacity.

It would be helpful to analyse spend against the categories below but if this is not possible, please provide total information against a single line.

An excel file is provided attached to provide the information on

1. Please provide information on Capital spend in the following format for all years.
2. Please provide a best estimate of the total % spent replacing existing equipment as opposed to investing in additional capacity."

I can advise you that we have now completed the search of our records and can provide you with the following information:

1. Please provide information on Capital spend in the following format for all years.

Under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act, 2002 (FOISA), an organisation does not have to provide the requested information if it does not hold that information. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) cannot provide some of the information requested due to NSS having no record of spend for some equipment out with our Framework Agreements or forecasted budget figures.

What we can provide you with is Appendix 1 - Total Spend on Medical Equipment per year. This details only data for equipment areas we cover throughout our frameworks.

2. Please provide a best estimate of the total % spent replacing existing equipment as opposed to investing in additional capacity.

Under Section 17 of the FOISA, an organisation does not have to provide the requested information if it does not hold that information. NSS does not hold complete spend data for equipment replacements or records of replacements as opposed to investing in additional capacity.

I trust you will find the information of assistance and if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how we have dealt with your request, you can make representations to us asking us to review the handling of your request.

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Contact

Address

If after a review you are still unhappy, you also have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS, or via their application form.

National Services Scotland (NSS) is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. You can view all FOI responses within our FOI Publications repository.