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 3) and from NHS Trusts on a provider 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:

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 31 May 2006.

2. Outpatient waiting times

This publication relates to patients referred by a GP (medical or dental) for a consultant led first outpatient appointment. It does not include:

Waiting times begin from the receipt of a GP referral and end on the date of the first outpatient appointment.

3. Provider and Commissioner based lists

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.  Historically there has been a 1% to 3% difference in the overall size of the waiting lists reported for NHS provider trusts and English residents, the trust-based figure being the larger.  Access the 'Hospital and Commissioner based lists' link for more info.

Commissioner based returns reflect responsible based populations, which is defined as 'Responsible Population':

4. Note on median waits

Median waiting times are calculated from aggregate data, rather than patient level data, and therefore are only estimates of the position on average waits.  They represent the median waiting time for patients still waiting for admission (or for first outpatient appointment) at the end of the month.

The introduction of weekly timebands in April 2006 has enabled a more precise calculation of the median waiting time, whilst using the same methodology.  Between April 2004 and March 2006, data were collected in monthly timebands, and prior to this in 3 monthly timebands.  As the latest figures are calculated from weekly timebands (and more accurate), they are not strictly comparable to previous years.

Both the weekly and monthly methods can be mapped back to the 'old' 3 monthly timebands, access the 'Median waits' table for illustration.

5. 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.

This month, the Department is revising figures for the whole of 2005/06 to reflect amendments supplied after publication.  The tables in the statistical press notice reflect these revisions.

Additional Information

Full details of waiting lists and times for individual organisations are available from this postal address, or the DH 'Hospital Waiting Times/List Statistics' link:

Planning and Performance Review Team

Department of Health

Room 4E57

Quarry House

Quarry Hill

Leeds LS2 7UE

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, accessible via the '12 month plan' link.

Any significant revisions received after the revision period has closed, eg 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.