PRIVATE companies competing for hospital contracts are abusing freedom of information laws to obtain commercial details from NHS trusts.

Trust managers, who argue that this goes against the spirit of the legislation, claim that up to one in three demands under the legislation comes from private firms.

“Information is now being used for commercial gain rather than public good,” one NHS manager said. There is also growing concern in hospitals about the time and resources needed to process demands.

Many of the requests concern information about services that the hospital has contracted out and details about supplies and equipment.

But some managers suspect that firms are trying to obtain information from hospitals to sell to national suppliers. In many cases NHS trusts are reporting similar inquiries from the same company.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Trust said yesterday that it had noticed a surge in requests from the private sector over the past three months. “There was not much interest from companies at the start of the year, but now one in three of our requests are from commercial organisations,” a spokesman said.

“The requests fall into two camps — those interested in NHS contracts or those trying to get information they can sell.” The trust has had several inquiries about mortuary equipment and services, as have several other hospitals.

“Firms can collect a database which they can then sell on to others. Otherwise the data can provide commercial advantage for a new business opportunity,” the spokesman added.

Although the private sector is entitled to make the requests, the legislation was introduced to give the public more access to information about Whitehall and public services.

The media is also able to ask for information under the laws but this is generally shared with the public. The NHS Confederation said yesterday that many NHS managers were having to spend time deciding whether information was too commercially sensitive to release.

A spokesman said: “At a time when many hospitals are in financial difficulties we cannot afford to spend time processing requests from private firms.

“Managers don’t feel the requests are in the spirit of the Act. They feel commercial companies are using the Act for unintended consequences.”

He said that many of the requests covered information about services provided by outside companies including closed-circuit television contracts and clinical equipment.

“Companies want to find out what other firms are providing,” he added.

Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act protects commercially sensitive information such as prices for competing bids in current contracts.

After a small survey of NHS trusts, the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, said that one in six hospitals had reported concerns about the level of interest from the private sector.

The confederation said that the private sector represented between a fifth and a quarter of all FoI demands to the trusts surveyed: “We are concerned about the extra burden placed on staff. Most hospitals do not have special FoI officers so the requests are dealt with by existing managers. We will be monitoring the situation carefully.”

The Department of Health said that private companies would not be able to glean commercially sensitive information but said that hospitals should ensure that any FoI answers were published on websites so it could be accessed by anyone.

A spokesman said: “The NHS is committed to freedom of information and any organisation or individual is entitled to request material under the Act, subject to legitimate exemptions such as commercial confidentiality.

“A large amount of information is already widely available to the public, and much is given out on request anyway. It is also good practice for public bodies to ensure that any fresh material released under the Act is made available generally, usually on the website. There is therefore no commercial advantage that a company or organisation could gain from making an FoI request.”

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