DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 20 November 2008
STATISTICAL PRESS NOTICE
Main Points
* Data is being published on Referral to Treatment (RTT) times
for patients whose 18 week clock stopped during September 2008.
* Data for admitted patients (patients whose 18 week clock
stopped with an inpatient/ day case admission) has been published
each month since January 2007 on an unadjusted basis. See
statistical notes.
* Data for admitted patients (patients whose 18 week clock
stopped with an inpatient/ day case admission) has been published
each month since March 2008 on an adjusted basis. See statistical notes.
* Data for non-admitted patients (patients whose 18 week clock
stopped during the month for reasons other than an inpatient/day
case admission) and incomplete RTT times for patients whose 18
week clock is still running was published for the first time in
November 2007.
* The NHS Improvement Plan, published in July 2004, stated
"By 2008, no one will have to wait longer than 18 weeks from
GP referral to hospital treatment..." - DH PSA target 13.
This data is being used to monitor progress towards this target.
For admitted patients, adjusted data is used to assess performance.
* Publication is an important mechanism in order to improve
coverage and completeness of the data.
* A data completeness assessment is being published alongside the
reported figures in order to aid interpretation of the data.
Further details on the methodology are available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Statistics/Performancedataandstatistics/18WeeksReferraltoTreatmentstatistics/DH_089757
Table 1 - RTT data by Strategic Health Authority (commissioner
based) - admitted and non-admitted data - September 2008
* Table 1 shows the proportion of patients seen within 18 weeks
by Strategic Health Authority for admitted and non-admitted pathways.
* The data is accompanied by a data completeness assessment for
each Strategic Health Authority.
* The data completeness assessment compares the number of
completed pathways with a known clock start reported in the RTT
return against the expected number of pathways.
* In total, 302,000 admitted patients and 839,000 non-admitted
patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible,
completed their RTT pathway during September 2008.
* The NHS reported both the clock stop and the clock start for
299,000 (99.2%) of completed admitted pathways and 836,000 (99.7%)
of completed non-admitted pathways.
* Of those pathways with both a known clock stop and a known
clock start, 90.2% of admitted patients (adjusted) and 95.7% of
non-admitted patients completed their referral to treatment
pathway within 18 weeks.
* For September, one provider organisation submitted adjusted
data in their unadjusted return.
Table 1a - Admitted data by Strategic Health Authority
Please see the attached document for this graph
Table 1b - Non-Admitted data by Strategic Health Authority
Please see the attached document for this graph
Table 2 - Referral to Treatment (RTT) Times - by time band
(commissioner based) - September 2008
Please see the attached document for this graph
Table 3 - Proportion of patients seen within 18 weeks - by
treatment function (commissioner based) - September 2008
Please see the attached document for this graph
Table 4 - Proportion of patients seen within 18 weeks and data
completeness - by Primary Care Trust (commissioner based)
Please see the attached document for this graph
Statistical Notes
1. Referral to Treatment (RTT) times
RTT data is collected from English Primary Care Trusts on a
responsible population basis (see note on next page) and from NHS
Trusts on a provider basis.
The NHS Improvement Plan, published in July 2004, stated "By
2008, no one will have to wait longer than 18 weeks from GP
referral to hospital treatment..." - DH PSA target 13. The
RTT data measures referral to treatment (RTT) times in weeks,
split by treatment function. The length of the RTT period is
reported for patients whose 18 week clock stopped during the month.
The Department of Health published the 18 Weeks Rules Suite on 28
November 2007. The documents can be found at:
http://www.18weeks.nhs.uk/Content.aspx?path=/measure-and-monitor/Rules-suite/
The rules for the data collection are based on those set out in
the rules documents.
The data collection is in three
parts:
Part 1a - Completed pathways - admitted
Part 1b -
Completed pathways - non-admitted
Part 2 - Incomplete pathways
The return includes all patients whose 18 week clock stopped at
any point in the reporting period. A column has been provided to
enter data for patients whose length of RTT period is unknown,
i.e. patients who have had a clock stop during the month but where
the clock start date is not known.
For non-admitted patients, the RTT time is measured on an
unadjusted basis - from the date the 18 week clock starts to the
date that the 18 week clock stops, as detailed in DSCN 17/2006.
For admitted patients, the RTT time is measured on an adjusted
basis - from the date the 18 week clock starts to the date that
the 18 week clock stops, allowing for legitimate pauses as
described in the above 18 Weeks Rules Suite and outlined in the
Operating Framework for 2008/09 paragraphs 2.24 to 2.28.
2. Provider and Commissioner based data
There are fundamental differences in coverage between
commissioner based and provider based information. Commissioner
based returns exclude all patients living outside England and all
privately funded patients waiting for treatment in NHS hospitals.
However they do include NHS funded patients, living in England,
who are waiting for treatment in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, abroad, and at private hospitals; these patients are not
included in the corresponding hospital based returns.
The differences are summarised in the diagram below:
Commissioner based returns reflect responsible based populations,
which is defined as:
Responsible Population:
* all those patients resident within the PCT boundary; plus
*
all patients registered with GPs who are members of the PCT, but
are resident in another PCT; minus
* All patients resident in
the PCT, but registered with a GP who is a member of another PCT
Additional Information
Full details of RTT data for individual organisations is
available at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Statistics/Performancedataandstatistics/18WeeksReferraltoTreatmentstatistics/index.htm
Press enquiries contact:
Press Office
Department of
Health
Telephone: 020 7210 5221
Knowledge and Intelligence
Department of Health
Room
4E63
Quarry House
Quarry Hill
Leeds LS2 7UE
Email: data18weeks@dh.gsi.gov.uk
Prepared by the Government Statistical Service