Welsh Assembly Government | Referral to Treatment, October 2010

Referral to Treatment, October 2010

The latest provisional statistics on referral to treatment times produced by the Welsh Assembly Government were released on 9th December 2010 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

There are some technical changes to RTT guidance implemented from October 2010. See the release for details of the changes. The changes have resulted in a small increase in the proportion reported as waiting less than 26 weeks.

The key points from the latest release are:

In total, 331,921 patients were waiting for the start of their treatment at 31st October. Of these patients waiting for their treatment, 94.9% have been waiting less than 26 weeks and 99.2% have been waiting less than 36 weeks from the date the referral letter was received in the hospital.
Of the patients who were treated during October, 90.4% were treated within 26 weeks and 98.6% were treated within 36 weeks of the date the referral letter was received in the hospital.
In total, 12,940 patients were waiting for the start of their cardiac treatment at 31st October. Of these patients waiting for their treatment, 96.9% have been waiting less than 26 weeks and 99.2% have been waiting less than 36 weeks from the date the referral letter was received in the hospital.
In total for Cardiac referral to treatment, 2,896 patients were treated for cardiac services in Wales in October. Of these, 94.5% were treated within 26 weeks of the date the referral letter was received in the hospital.
Information on specialties not covered by referral to treatment times reporting is presented in Section 3 of the release.

Statistics on a range of waiting times in the NHS in Wales are now published together. ‘NHS Wales Diagnostic and Therapy Services waiting times – October 2010’ is also published today.

There is currently a user consultation out on a range of NHS performance statistics, this can be found under Related Links.