Keywords

waiting times; health; treatment; hospital

Weblinks

The most recent statistical release can be found on the following weblink:
https://gov.wales/referral-treatment-times

https://cwmtaf.wales/welsh-government-announce-decision-on-bridgend-boundary-change/
https://gov.wales/written-statement-health-board-boundary-bridgend-associated-planning

Title

Combined Referral to Treatment waiting times - closed pathways (September 2011 onwards)

Last update

18/08/2022 18/08/2022

Next update

no further updates, unless subject to revision

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Referral to treatment times (RTT), Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW)

General description

his table provides the current data on referral to treatment waiting times for closed patient pathways.

Closed pathways include: patient pathways treated, patient pathways who no longer wanted to be seen, deceased patient pathways. This excludes closed patient pathways with unknown treatment start date.

Hywel Dda health board has no patients waiting for audiological medicine from January 2019 onwards, this is due to the service moving into the community based model.

From April 2016, there has been a change in the treatment function codes submitted by the local health boards.

In March 2016, we changed some of the terminology used in referral to treatment reporting. Previously, when publishing these statistics, we used the terminology ‘patients’. However, some users misinterpreted this as unique patients. It is possible that a person could be on a number of different lists waiting for different conditions – i.e. there would be one patient but more than one pathway. Due to the RTT dataset being an aggregate data collection we’re not able to measure the number of unique patients. Therefore, we are using the terminology ‘patient pathways’, to better reflect the fact that one person can be on multiple waiting lists. The methodology use to measure and calculate these statistics has not changed. This is also more consistent with the other nations of the UK in their reporting of RTT.

Data collection and calculation

Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.

From 1st April 2019 health service provision for residents of Bridgend local authority moved from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg to Cwm Taf. For more information see the joint statement from Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Boards (see weblinks). The health board names have changed with Cwm Taf University Health Board becoming Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board becoming Swansea Bay University Health Board. A link to the statement from the minister for health and social service can be found in the weblinks section.

Frequency of publication

No longer updated

Data reference periods

September 2011 onwards

Users, uses and context

Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.

Revisions information

Data within this cube was revised back to September 2011. This did not impact on the overall figures. However, figures at a health board level have changed.

From October 2018 to July 2022 Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board was unable to provide closed pathway data because of IT problems following a software update. For this period all figures in the release were totals for the other six Health Boards in Wales, though data for Cwm Taf up to August 2018 were available on StatsWales. Cwm Taf data for the full series are now available and revised from August 2022.

Statistical quality

Please find this information in the related statistical release, as per the given weblink.

Due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic all non-urgent outpatient appointments were suspended in March 2020. Meaning, most hospitals had to reduce or suspend the services they offered, which led to a reduction in the numbers for closed pathways in the month of April 2020 and subsequent months.

Cwm Taf were unable to submit closed pathways data since August 2018. Therefore the Wales total prior to August 2018 are not comparable with later months. See the latest release for more information.

More detailed treatment functions have been introduced recently but have not been used consistently across all Local Health Boards; for example, patients receiving vascular surgery may have been recorded in either “General Surgery” or “Vascular Surgery” treatment functions. To reduce uncertainty and make counts more reliable, the new functions will be removed temporarily and treatment functions will be recorded under the more general headings; for example, all patients receiving vascular surgery will now be published under “General Surgery” until consistent recording of treatment functions is confirmed across all Local Health Boards. This has now been fully actioned back to April 2016 when the new codes were introduced and will remain under general headings until the more detailed treatment functions are used consistently across Wales

November 2016 figures for paediatric surgery at Betsi Cadwaladr could not be accurately provided. Therefore, figures for October 2016 have been used as estimates.
Prior to February 2017, rheumatology data for Betsi Cadwaladr has been over reported due to the fact that they erroneously included DEXA scans in the data they submitted. Prior to February 2017, rheumatology data for Betsi Cadwaladr has been over reported due to the fact that they erroneously included DEXA scans in the data they submitted, which are not reportable under RTT. From February 2017 onwards the data submitted by the health board is correct.

Due to technical difficulties, Aneurin Bevan were unable to run the report to provide figures for those patient pathways treated for June and July 2012 and to avoid not submitting any figures, the figures for those treated that were previously submitted for May 2012 have been used as estimates.

December 2011 to February 2012 figures for Aneurin Bevan for those waiting to start treatment and those treated, as well as March 2012 figures for those treated, are estimated using their data for November 2011. Also, the data since April 2012 for those treated is not fully validated. This is following the implementation of a new Patient Administration System at the end of 2011.

Name

HLTH0085