Patient pathways waiting to start treatment by month, grouped weeks and stage of pathway
Note that data included in this statistical release covers a time period during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has affected both how some NHS services have been offered and people's choices regarding health services. See the latest release for more information.
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AllMetadata
- High level information
- Weblinks
- Statistical quality information
- Summary information
- Keywords
- Open Data
Title
Combined Referral to Treatment waiting times - patients waiting (September 2011 onwards)Last update
18/04/2024Next update
23/05/2024Publishing organisation
Welsh GovernmentSource 1
Referral to treatment times (RTT), Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW)Contact email
stats.healthinfo@gov.walesDesignation
National StatisticsLowest level of geographical disaggregation
Local health boardsGeographical coverage
WalesLanguages covered
English and WelshData licensing
You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licenceWeblinks
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
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 an increase in both the lengths of waits and the number of people waiting on patient pathways for the month of April 2020 and subsequent months.
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.
April 2017 figures for the specialities Allied Health Professionals and Diagnostic Services for the Cwm Taf University LHB could not be accurately provided. Therefore, figures for March 2017 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, which are not reportable under RTT. From February 2017 onwards the data submitted by the health board is correct. Following the decision to exclude DEXA scans from their RTT submission from February 2017, Betsi Cadwaladr discovered that some clinics had continued to report these scans under rheumatology. From October 2017 data onwards, all data for DEXA scans at Betsi Cadwaladr is being excluded.
October 2015 figures for the specialities Allied Health Professionals and Diagnostic Services for the Cwm Taf University LHB could not be accurately provided. Therefore, figures for September 2015 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.
General description
This table provides the current data on referral to treatment waiting times for patient pathways waiting (open pathway) to start treatment by grouped weeks.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.
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. From February 2017 onwards the data submitted by the health board is correct. The health board is currently investigating whether it will be possible to resubmit their historic data excluding DEXA scans, as these are not reportable under RTT.
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.
