Freedom of information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) gives you the right of access to information held by NHS Kent and Medway.

The Act recognises that, as a member of the public, you have the right to know how public services make their operational decisions and how public money is used. It gives anyone a general right to request access to see official information held by public authorities such as NHS Kent and Medway. For further information, visit the Information Commissioner's Office website.  

The Act reflects a national policy to shift from a culture of confidentiality to one of openness, where information is routinely available, subject to certain exemptions, to anyone who wishes to see it.

Any information supplied to you is protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting.

Any other re-use, for example commercial publication and subscription charge, requires the permission of the copyright holder. This can be obtained via an application for an open government licence (OGL) under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.

Use of information expressly made available under this license indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions as set out in the OGL.

To make an application for re-use you must:

• make a request in writing to this address

  • Complaints and Freedom of Information Manager
    NHS Kent and Medway
    Unit 4, Markerstudy Business Park
    Thanet Way
    Whitstable CT5 3FD
    kmicb.foi@nhs.net

• state the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence
• specify the document to be re-used
• state the purpose for which the document is to be re-used

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or organisation, you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their permission to re-use. Further guidance can be found online.

NHS Kent and Medway complies with the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 and we encourage the re-use of the information we produce, hold and disseminate. We are open and transparent, and treat all applications to re-use in a fair and non-discriminatory way.

(Previously known as the Fair Processing Notice)

We will record your contact and request details in order to monitor and improve the service we provide and to discharge our statutory obligations under the Act. This information will be handled in accordance with the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice and the Data Protection Act 1998.

You are required not to use personal data which is provided to you for electronic marketing (telesales, fax, email) to our staff and comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Provision of personal data in response to a FOI or environmental information request does not constitute consent from the individual concerned.

The Data Protection Act gives individuals rights to prevent processing likely to cause substantial unwarranted damage or unwarranted distress (section 10) and to prevent processing for the purposes of direct marketing (section 11). You should be aware that selling, giving or sharing of personal data could breach the Data Protection Act. NHS Kent and Medway advises staff of their rights.