Scottish Government

Title

Percentage of patient journeys for which an 18 Weeks Referral To Treatment (18 Weeks RTT) waiting time could be measured were reported as being within 18 weeks.

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 percentage of patient journeys within 18 weeks.

Strategic Objective(s) to Which Indicator Relates

This indicator informs progress in relation to the Healthier Strategic Objective.

More Detailed Definitions

Definitions of Keywords

The definitions for 18 weeks RTT data are:

Patient journey: A patients 18 Weeks RTT journey begins with the receipt of referral for treatment and ends with the start of treatment.

Patient journeys that could be fully measured: Those patient journeys where it has been possible for the NHS Board treating the patient to link all stages of the patient's journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment.

Number of patient journeys within 18 weeks: The number of patient journeys where the start of treatment was within 18 weeks (126 days or less) of the initial referral, minus any periods of patient unavailability.

Number of patient journeys over 18 weeks: The number of patient journeys where the start of treatment was over 18 weeks (126 days) from the initial referral, minus any periods of patient unavailability.

Patient unavailability: Unavailability, for patients without a date for treatment, is a period of time when the patient is unavailable for treatment. Unavailability can be for medical or social reasons.

Patients' rights, the approach to offering appointments, and how periods of unavailability are deducted from the total wait is described under New Ways protocols. See New Ways website for further information http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4536.html

The 18 weeks Referral to Treatment target is due to be delivered from 31 December 2011. The Scottish Government has determined that this target should be delivered for at least 90% of patients. More information on this tolerance is included in the publication. More information on the definitions for this target is available on the 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment website http://www.18weeks.scot.nhs.uk/

Evidence Source

The indicator is derived from ISD's monthly 18 weeks RTT data submissions. NHS Boards are working with ISD and Scottish Government to improve the consistency and completeness of these data.

The 18 weeks RTT statistics should be considered provisional and data quality notes should be taken in to consideration. A full description on data quality is included in the Publication Report on the ISD website ( http://www.isdscotland.org//Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/index.asp ).

Baseline and Past Trends

The baseline is January 2011.

Methodology

Percentage of patient journeys within 18 weeks is calculated as:

Numerator:

The number of patient journeys where the start of treatment was within 18 weeks (126 days or less) of the initial referral, minus any periods of patient unavailability.

Denominator:

Those patient journeys where it has been possible for the NHS Board treating the patient to link all stages of the patient's journey from the initial referral to the start of treatment.

In September 2011, a total of 117,414 patient journeys eligible under the 18 Weeks RTT target were identified. The waiting time could be measured for 95,282 of these patients (81.2%). It was not possible to calculate the waiting time fully for 22,132 patients. NHS Boards are in the process of fully implementing upgrades to their systems to improve the data collection.

Data Ownership and Quality Assurance

These official statistics have been published since May 2011. The ISD publication says these data are still at an early stage of development.

NHS Boards are working with ISD and Scottish Government to update systems in order to further improve whole pathway information capture to support the measuring and reporting against the 18 Weeks RTT target.

Publication of Data

The 18 weeks RTT statistics were published for the first time in May 2011 and are published on the ISD website www.isdscotland.org.

The statistics are updated on a quarterly basis (e.g. with January, February and March 2011 statistics published in May 2011).

Methodology for recent change arrow on Scotland Performs

The change in the percentage of patient journeys (for which an 18 Weeks RTT waiting time could be measured) that were reported as being within 18 weeks between the most recent month and the corresponding month from the previous quarter (e.g. change from June to September):

Performance Improving: An increase of 1 percentage point or more from the previous quarter.

Performance Maintaining: Variation of less than 1 percentage point from the previous quarter.

Performance Worsening: A decrease of 1 percentage point or more from the previous quarter.

Future Issues or Reviews

The 18 weeks Referral to Treatment target is due for delivery from 31 December 2011.