FOI/2025/26/096

Request

Thank you for responding to my previous request 25-0537 sent 16^th May 2025. Could you please answer question 1d (Does your Trust currently follow any of the following national guidelines for the treatment and management of Overactive Bladder (OAB)? d) Any NHS England-issued clinical guidelines related to OAB management?) again, as there was no response recorded?

 

After reviewing the previous FOI response and completing enquiries , We find the above had been answered. (Please see previous response ) .

 

I would also like to request the following information:

 

1. The number of patients referred to your Trust for Overactive Bladder (OAB) in each of the past five calendar years, from 2020 to 2025 (year to date). Please include both internal referrals within the Trust and external referrals from primary care or other organisations.

 

Section 12 Exemption applied:

 

Having completed enquiries within CLCH in respect of Section 1(1)(a), CLCH does hold information relating to your request, however, the obligation of Section 1(1)(b) cannot be met as CLCH does not hold all the information requested in a format that allows it to be retrieved within the time and cost limits of FOI.

When responding to a request for information under the terms of the FOIA, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if the authority estimates that the cost of the retrieval of the information requested would be in excess of £450 (equivalent to 18 hours work). The costs criteria relates to a request in its entirety, which means that if we cannot retrieve all of the information requested within the costs limit, we are not obliged to retrieve any of the information requested.

 

Section 12(1) of the FOIA states that a public authority is not obliged to:

“…comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”

 

The following explanation outlines the difficulty CLCH has in answering your request:

 

Response from South west - OAB is not coded in the clinical system as it is not a national reporting requirement. It would be a manual task to review all Continence patient notes and identify a number for the return. This would take in excess of 100 hours per year, per borough, due to the volume.

 

Response from North Central – Data not captured

 

Response from Herts – Data not captured

 

Outer North West – Data not captured

 

Inner North West – Data not captured

 

Please provide the information broken down by calendar year.

 

1. The number of patients treated for OAB using each of the following modalities in each calendar year from 2020 to 2025 (year to date):
   1. Intradetrusor botulinum toxin (Botox) injections
   2. Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) or tibial nerve stimulation (TNS)
2. Please provide this data broken down by year and treatment type.

 

Response from South West - CLCH does not provide these clinical services and would refer to secondary care if they were required

 

Response from North Central – Service not provided

 

Response from Herts – Service not provided

 

Outer North West – Service not provided

 

Inner North West – Service not provided