Public Expenditure on Health and Personal Social Services 2009 - Health Committee Contents


5.  ACTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE

5.1.8  What progress has been made in achieving the 18-week referral-to-treatment maximum waiting target? Please provide the most recent data and a commentary. (Q47)

Answer

  1.  The available information is given in tables 47a and 47b and figures 47a and 47b.

  2.  The data is collated by Department of Health members of the Government Statistical Service and published in accordance with the National Statistics Code of Practice. The Department feels that the referral to treatment (RTT) data is fit to be considered a national statistic, and on 23 February 2009 the Secretary of State for Health wrote to the chair of the UK Statistics Authority to request a formal national statistics assessment for the data. The assessment will be completed by the end of 2009.

  3.  NHS trusts submit monthly returns to the Department via its "Unify2" data collection system. The returns contain counts of numbers of patients whose RTT period ended in a particular month and counts of numbers of RTT patients who are still waiting at the end of the month. Details of the length of time waited, within one-week time bands, by treatment function are collected. Data for each provider are broken down by commissioner (PCT).

  4.  Providers are required to submit data by the thirteenth working day after the month end. Commissioners then have ten further working days in which to check the data. Providers may re-upload returns if changes are needed, and commissioners can then sign off data. The Department of Health team then applies a number of central validation checks on the data, looking for missing or outlying data. Anomalous figures are queried and resolved with data suppliers.

  5.  In addition to the validation checks described above, the Department makes an assessment of data completeness each month for each organisation by comparing the numbers of submitted RTT pathways with expected numbers of pathways based on other data sources. Data completeness figures are published alongside the RTT figures.

  6.  Validations are used to challenge and correct apparently erroneous data. Initially, validation focused on completed RTT waits. More recently, the validation focus has turned to numbers of patients still waiting. This work is expected to further strengthen the whole RTT dataset.

  7.  From 1 January 2009, the minimum expectation of consultant-led elective services will be that no one should wait more than 18 weeks from the time they are referred to the start of their hospital treatment, unless it is clinically appropriate to do so or they choose to wait longer.

  8.  The minimum operational delivery standards for the NHS in 2009-10 are that 90% of admitted patients and 95% of non-admitted patients will start treatment within 18 weeks of referral. These standards allow for patients who choose to wait longer or where it is clinically appropriate for patients to wait longer.

  9.  Latest data show that since January 2009 the NHS nationally has been delivering the minimum operational standards for 18 weeks to ensure that no one should wait more than 18 weeks from the time they are referred to the start of their consultant-led treatment, unless it is clinically appropriate to do so or they choose to wait longer.

  10.  NHS waiting times are the shortest since NHS records began, with a median wait of around eight weeks from referral to admitted patient treatment and around four weeks from referral to non-admitted patient treatment in May 2009 (latest published data). Figures for June 2009 show that:

    — 93.6% of patients whose treatment involved admission to hospital started their treatment within 18 weeks; and

    — 97.8% of patients whose treatment did not involve admission to hospital started their treatment within 18 weeks.

Table 47a

PROGRESS TOWARD ACHIEVING THE 18-WEEK REFERRAL TO TREATMENT MAXIMUM WAITING TARGET



Date
% admitted (1)
% non-
admitted
Trajectory
admitted
Trajectory
non-admitted

March 2007
48.0
  
  
  
April 2007
51.0
  
35.0
  
May 2007
53.0
  
38.0
  
June 2007
54.0
  
42.0
  
July 2007
54.0
  
46.0
  
August 2007
56.0
76.1
50.0
75.0
September 2007
57.1
75.5
54.0
77.0
October 2007
60.0
77.0
59.0
79.0
November 2007
63.0
77.0
64.0
81.0
December 2007
64.0
79.0
68.0
83.0
January 2008
68.9
82.3
73.0
85.0
February 2008
75.1
86.1
79.0
88.0
March 2008
87.1
93.4
80.0
91.0
April 208
86.7
92.9
81.0
91.5
May 2008
88.6
93.8
83.0
92.0
June 2008
88.9
94.4
84.0
92.5
July 2008
89.9
95.0
85.0
93.0
August 2008
90.3
95.3
86.0
93.5
September 2008
90.2
95.7
87.0
94.0
October 2008
90.6
96.3
88.0
94.5
November 2008
90.6
96.5
89.0
94.8
December 2008
92.8
97.1
90.0
95.0
January 2009
92.9
97.3
90.0
95.0
February 2009
92.7
97.3
90.0
95.0
March 2009
93.0
97.4
90.0
95.0
April 2009
93.3
97.4
90.0
95.0
May 2009
93.7
97.8
90.0
95.0
June 2009
93.6
97.8
90.0
95.0

Source:
Knowledge and Intelligence, DH
Footnotes:
1.  Admitted figures for March 2008 onwards are adjusted to take account of patients who choose to wait before being admitted to hospital for treatment. Admitted figures up to February 2008 are unadjusted.






Table 47b

WAITING TIMES FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTS



Date
Number of waits
over 6 weeks in 15
key tests
Number of waits
over 13 weeks in 15
key tests
Number of waits
over 6 weeks for
other diagnostic tests

April 2006
404,198
203,114
  
May 2006
387,883
196,249
  
June 2006
363,426
191,370
435,000
July 2006
359,002
180,633
  
August 2006
371,348
186,060
  
September 2006
351,827
179,615
286,000
October 2006
366,853
200,843
  
November 2006
349,227
182,846
  
December 2006
380,259
191,385
186,600
January 2007
350,822
167,826
  
February 2007
276,824
141,864
  
March 2007
243,191
109,094
101,500
April 2007
249,482
105,935
  
May 2007
224,972
100,409
  
June 2007
211,004
94,791
87,600
July 2007
186,154
83,068
  
August 2007
174,066
71,784
  
September 2007
140,052
55,760
69,200
October 2007
114,296
45,675
  
November 2007
89,905
32,290
  
December 2007
86,185
25,464
44,400
January 2008
67,473
16,857
  
February 2008
33,121
8,436
  
March 2008
12,904
3,520
12,600
April 208
12,021
2,742
  
May 2008
11,751
2,710
  
June 2008
10,083
1,986
7,000
July 2008
11,088
4,088
  
August 2008
10,494
3,341
  
September 2008
6,616
2,517
7,500
October 2008
6,115
2,453
  
November 2008
4,839
1,651
  
December 2008
5,703
1,074
6,300
January 2009
5,686
1,005
  
February 2009
3,470
769
  
March 2009
2,837
298
5,300
April 2009
4,007
231
  
May 2009
3,890
319
  
June 2009
3,935
310
5,800

Source:
Diagnostics monthly collection (DM01), quarterly diagnostic census








 
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