What a Publication Scheme is
This Publication Scheme is a complete guide to the information routinely published by Wirral Hospital Trust. It is a description of the information about our Trust that we will make publicly available. We shall review the Scheme at regular intervals and monitor how it is operating. It is important to us that this Scheme meets your needs and we have designed it to be a route map so that you can find information about Wirral Hospital easily. Under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (there is a link to the Act in Part 3 below), the Trust has a legal duty to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme for the publication of Wirral Hospital Trust information. The purpose of the Act is to promote greater openness by public authorities (of which Wirral Hospital Trust is one). The Publication Scheme will help you to find all the information that the Trust publishes. The Freedom of Information Act does not change the right of patients to protection of their patient confidentiality in accordance with Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention, the Data Protection Act and at common law. Maintaining the legal right to patient confidentiality continues to be an important commitment on our part. To help with this, we have appointed someone who is called a Caldicott Guardian, who has a responsibility to ensure the protection of patient confidentiality throughout the Trust in accordance with your legal rights. In Wirral Hospital the Caldicott Guardian is the Medical Director*.

Information Management
Information falling into the Classes will be retained in line with the Trust's retention and disposal schedules, which comply with circular HSC1999/53 and Public Record Office Guidance.

Feedback
Any questions, comments or complaints about this Scheme should be sent in writing to the Publication Scheme Co-ordinator*.

If you have a complaint about the operation of the Publication Scheme, or how the Trust has dealt with your request for information from the Scheme, please write to the Trust's Complaints Manager*.

Rights of Access to Information
At the present time, in addition to accessing the information identified in this Publication Scheme, you are entitled to request information about Wirral Hospital Trust under the NHS Openness Code 1995. A link to this is available in Part 3 of the Scheme and copies are available free of charge from the Department of Health, PO Box 777, London, SE1 6XH. Requests for information about the Wirral Hospital under the NHS Code of Openness can be made to the Director of Service Development*.

Sometimes, some or all of the information cannot be provided and we will explain the reasons why not when this happens. The Freedom of Information Act recognises that as a member of the public, you have the right to know how public services such as the NHS are organised and run, how much they cost and how you can make complaints if you need to. You have the right to know which services are being provided, the targets that are being set, the standards of services that are expected and the results achieved.

From January 1st 2005, the Act obliges the Trust to respond to requests about the information which it holds and is recorded in any form and it will create a right of access to that information. The rights to request and access this information are subject to some exemptions, which the Trust has to take into consideration before deciding what information can be released. The Trust will be producing policy documentation for the processing of requests under the Freedom of Information Act before 1st January 2005, and we will provide information relating to this documentation in this Publication Scheme when it has been developed.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (a link to this is available in Part 3 of the Scheme) you are also entitled to access your clinical records or any other personal information held about you and to do this you can contact the Health Records Manager*.

New Environmental Information Regulations may be introduced as early as 2003. These will enable similar access to environmental information, as under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We will include such information in this Publication Scheme when required to do so.

Throughout this Publication Scheme, there will be references to 'Wirral Hospital', 'Wirral Hospital Trust', 'Wirral Hospital NHS Trust' or 'The Trust'. All references mentioned above and throughout the Publication Scheme relate to the organisation 'Wirral Hospital National Health Service Trust', as per the Establishment Order in 1990. Details of how to obtain copies of the Establishment Order can be found in Class 2.