Title | Number of patients waiting more than 15 weeks for hospital inpatient or day case treatment. |
National Indicator/Target | Achieve annual milestones for reducing inpatient or day case waiting times culminating in delivery of an 18 week referral to treatment time from December 2011. |
Brief Description | The indicator is measuring the number of patients waiting more than 15 weeks for hospital inpatient or day case treatment. Availability status codes (ASCs) were abolished from 1 January 2008. Periods of unavailability are now deducted from the inpatient and day case waits. |
Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates | This indicator informs progress in relation to the Healthier Strategic Objective. |
More Detailed Definitions | |
Definitions of Keywords | ASCs were abolished from 1 January 2008 and so the indicator covers all patients. The indicator is based on inpatient and day case waiting times with periods of unavailability deducted from total wait. Patients rights, the approach to offering appointments, and how periods of unavailability are deducted from the total wait is described under the New Ways protocols. See New Ways website for further information http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4536.html The inpatient and day case indicator covers all acute specialities apart from Obstetrics and Mental Health. Precise definition of the 18 week referral to treatment target is currently being developed by the 18 Weeks RTT Programme. The definition will cover the scope of services/treatments and any tolerance to be applied to the target. See 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment website for further information http://www.18weeks.scot.nhs.uk/ |
Evidence Source | The indicator is derived from New Ways waiting times statistics. Inpatient and day case waiting times are a key component of the overall referral to treatment times. The other key elements are first outpatient appointments and diagnostic tests waiting times. The indicator is a count of the number of patients waiting over 15 weeks for treatment, taken at the end of month. To allow referral to treatment waiting times statistics to be produced, systems are being developed to link each individual stage of a patients journey from GP referral to the outcome (admission for treatment or discharge). |
Baseline and Past Trends | The number of patients waiting more than 15 weeks for hospital admission as an inpatient / day case at 30 March 2008 was 1,894. This is the earliest quarter for which New Ways data is available. Available historic statistics do not deduct periods of unavailability from the overall waiting time so cannot be directly compared to the current data. However, to provide some context it is worth noting that at 31 December 2007, there were a total of 26,928 inpatients and day cases waiting over 15 weeks, dropping to 8,209 at 31 December 2008. |
Methodology | The New Ways website provides details on how periods of unavailability calculations are carried out www.isdscotland.org/isd/4536.html |
Data Ownership and Quality Assurance | The statistics will be National Statistics produced by Information Services Division ( ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland. |
Publication of Data | Statistics will be published on the ISD website www.isdscotland.org. The statistics are updated on a quarterly basis (e.g. with January, February and March 2008 statistics published in May 2008). |
Methodology for recent change arrow on Scotland Performs | The change in numbers waiting over 15 weeks for hospital admission as an inpatient or day case between the most recent published quarter and the same quarter of the previous year is the measure currently used to assess the arrow. Performance Improving: A decrease of greater than 10% from the same quarter in the previous year. Performance Maintaining: Variation of ± 10% from the same quarter in the previous year. Performance Worsening: An increase of greater than 10% from the same quarter in the previous year. Please note; as the number waiting more than 15 weeks approaches zero a small change in absolute numbers may result in a disproportionately large percentage change. |
Future Issues or Reviews | The 15 weeks performance measure is due to be replaced in August 2010 with a new performance measure to gauge progress towards delivery of 18 weeks referral to treatment. Definitions and methodologies are currently being developed. |