Website of the Department of Health

Statistical Notes

1. Inpatient waiting lists

Waiting list information is collected from English Primary Care Trusts on a responsible population basis (see note on next page) and from NHS Trusts on a hospital basis.

In interpreting the figures it should be noted that about half of patients (not including live babies) treated in hospitals are emergency cases and do not come from the waiting lists.

This publication contains waiting list information on patients who are waiting to be admitted for treatment either as a day case or ordinary admission. It does not include:

  -  patients admitted as emergency cases

 -  outpatients

 -  patients undergoing a planned programme of treatment e.g. a series of admissions for chemotherapy

 -  expectant mothers booked for confinement

 -  patients already in hospital but included on other waiting lists

 -  patients who are temporarily suspended from waiting lists for social reasons or because they are known to be not medically ready for treatment.

Waiting times begin from the date the clinician decided to admit the patient. Patients subsequently offered a date but unable to attend have their waiting times calculated from the most recent date offered. These are known as self-deferred cases and are included in the total waiting.

The tables include an element of estimation and incorporate all returns and amendments received from Primary Care Trusts and NHS Trusts up to 2nd February 2006.

2. Hospital and Commissioner based lists

There are fundamental differences in coverage between commissioner based and hospital 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.  Historically there has been a 1% to 3% difference in the overall size of the waiting lists reported for NHS hospital trusts and English residents, the trust-based figure being the larger.

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

3. Publication Dates

In the past monthly waiting list/times outputs have been published on the Friday of the 5th full week following the end of the reporting month or the Friday of the 6th full week following quarter end. This formula has been reviewed following improvements in the timeliness of collecting NHS Hospital waiting data.

The new formula will be "first Friday on or after the 20th working day after reporting month end". This formula delivers improvements to the publication timetable that benefits all users of this information while maintaining Friday as the normal publication day.  See Hospital and Commissioner based lists link below for more info.

4. Revisions

Revisions to previous months data are made in line with the Department of Health's revisions protocol for performance monitoring data.  A copy of the protocol is attached at Annex A.

5. Additional Information

Full details of waiting lists and times for individual organisations are available from this postal address, or the DH website below:

Waiting Times Analysis

Department of Health

Room 4E57

Quarry House

Quarry Hill

Leeds LS2 7UE

Telephone: 0113 254 6387

Email: DCVA-PPRT@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Annex A - Revisions Protocol for Performance Monitoring Data

This revision protocol relates to the NHS performance monitoring data collected and disseminated by the Performance and Planning Review Team (PPRT) in the Department of Health.  The range of information covered is currently collected in the returns and disseminated in the statistical publications listed at Annex A.

Dissemination:

The publication of revised data will be via a statistical press notice every 6 months, released in line with the Department's release policy.

Timing:

We will publish significant revisions to the data on a six monthly basis to dates that will be included in the DH Statistics 12-month publication plan.

Any significant revisions received after the revision period has closed ie 48 hours before publication, will generally not be disseminated until the next scheduled revision.

Historic data:

Revisions will relate usually to the 6 months prior to the revisions publication date.  In exceptional circumstances revisions will go further back, if not doing so would materially distort the historical time series.  Revisions to individual trusts and PCTs will be reflected in the England and SHAs' totals

Explanations for revisions:

We would expect SHAs to validate the explanations for revisions to data as this is consistent with their validation of the revisions themselves.  This would only apply to NHS organisations that have a management relationship with the SHA.  For revisions due to departmental error the explanation would be cleared through the appropriate departmental channels.  An explanation of the reasons for the changes will be published in an Annex alongside the revised data.

Effects of revisions will accompany the release:

The impact of revisions on Departmental targets will be released along side the revisions.

Decisions about revisions

Final decisions about publishing revised data will be taken by senior professional DH analysts, consulting the DH Statistics Head of Profession on both the nature and presentation of revisions.  The normal pre-release procedure will apply to revisions.  Processes will evolve over time as experience refines the requirements for  implementing this new policy.

This policy is compatible with the Departmental compliance statement with the National Statistics Code of Practice and Protocols, and with the National Statistics protocol on Data Revisions.