01/FOI/26/007805/T - IT systems

Request:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following recorded information about the current process used for custody healthcare:
1. Please describe the current process for requesting that a healthcare professional attend or assess a detainee in police custody.
2. What system is currently used to record or manage that request?
3. Who enters the request onto the system: police custody staff, the healthcare provider’s control room, the healthcare professional, or another person?
4. Is the system used for those requests known as SUMS, or the Service User Management System?
5. How is the healthcare professional notified that a request for attendance or assessment has been made?
6. How does the healthcare professional record that the assessment has been completed and document its outcome?
7. Is the outcome entered onto the police custody system, such as Niche or another system, and if so, who makes that entry?
8. Do police officers or police custody staff have direct access to SUMS?
9. Do healthcare professionals have direct access to Niche or any other police custody-record system?
10. Where a police officer requires a written witness statement from a healthcare professional:
a. what system is used to make and record that request; and b. who enters the request onto that system: the requesting police officer, other police staff, the healthcare provider, the healthcare professional, or another person?

Response:

Humberside Police can confirm we do the information you requested.

1. Police Custody Staff will telephone the healthcare contractor’s call centre to make a referral. In exceptional circumstances a referral may be made direct to a HCP on site in the Custody Suite.
2. Dolly system
3. Either the Healthcare provider call centre staff or where a referral is made direct to a HCP in exceptional circumstances the HCP
4. No
5. It appears on the system
6. It is recorded directly onto the system
7. Yes
8. N/A
9. Yes
10.
a. The request is sent to a specific email address
b. Either a Police Officer or Police staff will complete a very short request form and send it to the email address provided by our Healthcare provider.

Please note that police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide information and statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force’s response to your questions should not be used for the comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.