FOI 25-418 Attendances at Portree Hospital Urgent Care Centre
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-418 Attendances at Portree Hospital Urgent Care Centre
- Request Date
- 23 Sep 2025
- Response Date
- 20 Oct 2025
- Response
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), public authorities are not required to create new information in order to respond to a request. There is a distinction between creating new information and compiling information. Where a request can be answered by compiling information from readily available resources held by the authority, this is not considered creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex judgement, the information is not held.
In this case, while we do hold data on incidents and patient transfers, we do not hold information that allows us to determine whether Paramedics were specifically called due to the unavailability of Advanced Care at the Urgent Care Centre. Identifying such cases would require interpretation and complex judgement across multiple datasets, which goes beyond simple collation. Therefore, we must apply Section 17 of FOISA – information not held – in relation to this part of your request.
We can, however, provide information on patients who were transferred from Portree Hospital Urgent Care Centre to another location, such as another Urgent Care Centre or A&E. Please note that while transfer data is available, the reason for transfer is not routinely recorded in a way that would allow us to identify whether it was due to the unavailability of Advanced Care.
Please see the table below detailing the number of patient transfers and the receiving hospital. These figures represent the total for the months requested; any further breakdown may risk individual incidents becoming identifiable.
From Hospital
To Hospital
Incidents
Portree Hospital (Isle of Skye)
Dr Mackinnon Memorial Hospital (Isle of Skye)
9
Portree Hospital (Isle of Skye)
Raigmore Hospital (Inverness)
<5
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
