FOI 2024-042

I am writing under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) to request the following information:

1a. Does your organisation follow the guidance set out in Section 5 (Recording RTT waiting times: Planned patients) of NHS England’s ‘Recording and reporting referral to treatment (RTT) waiting times for consultant led elective care’?: “Planned care means an appointment /procedure or series of appointments/ procedures as part of an agreed programme of care which is required for clinical reasons to be carried out at a specific time or repeated at a specific frequency. Planned activity is also sometimes called ‘surveillance’, ‘re-do’ or ‘follow-up'.” … “When patients on planned lists are clinically ready for their care to commence and reach the date for their planned appointment, they should either receive that appointment or be transferred to an active waiting list and a waiting time clock should start (and be reported in the relevant waiting time return). The key principle is that where patients' treatment can be started immediately, then they should start treatment or be added to an active waiting list.”

1b. If so, do you follow the guidance with respect to the following types of planned patient (as defined in the guidance):

• Follow-up outpatients
• Cancer surveillance patients
• Active monitoring patients

1c. If so, at what point does your organisation place patients waiting for planned care (as defined in the guidance) on an active RTT waiting list? (e.g. the RTT clock starts as soon as a patient’s care becomes ‘overdue’, or after a defined time period or tolerance following a patient’s care becoming ‘overdue’?)

1d. If such patients are placed on an active RTT waiting list, do you report them on i) the Referral to Treatment statistics to NHS England which are published monthly as National Statistics, and/or ii) the Waiting List Minimum Data Set (WLMDS)?

2a. How many patients on your active RTT waiting list have been placed on this waiting list having been transferred from a planned care list (as defined in the guidance)? Please provide the most recent available figures and state the date of those figures.

2b. How long have these patients been on an active RTT waiting list?

1. 0-4 weeks (0-28 days)
2. >4 -12 weeks (29-84 days)
3. >12-18 weeks (85 days-126 days)
4. >18-36 weeks (127 days-252 days)
5. >36-52 weeks (253 days-364 days)
6. >52-104 weeks (365 days – 728 days)
7. >104 weeks (729 days or more)
8. No date recorded.

2c. How many of these patients are on an active RTT waiting list for the following RTT treatment functions?

1. General Surgery Service
2. Urology Service
3. Trauma and Orthopaedic Service
4. Ear Nose and Throat Service
5. Ophthalmology Service
6. Oral Surgery Service
7. Neurosurgical Service
8. Plastic Surgery Service
9. Cardiothoracic Surgery Service
10. General Internal Medicine Service
11. Gastroenterology Service
12. Cardiology Service
13. Dermatology Service
14. Respiratory Medicine Service
15. Neurology Service
16. Rheumatology Service
17. Elderly Medicine Service
18. Gynaecology Service
19. Other - Medical Services
20. Other - Mental Health Services
21. Other - Paediatric Services
22. Other - Surgical Services
23. Other - Other Services
24. Unknown

3. How many planned patients (as defined in the guidance), in each of the following categories, do not have a date that allows their overdue date to be calculated ( e.g. a due-by / latest clinically appropriate date):

• Follow-up outpatients
• Cancer surveillance patients
• Active monitoring patients