NHS Inpatient And Outpatient Waiting Times Figures, 31 July 2008 - UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 31 Aug 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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The key points from the latest release are:

Inpatient Waiting times

- The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 26 weeks standard for inpatient admission at the end of July 2008 was 82 (compared to the total of 542,000).

- The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 13 weeks at the end of July 2008 was 39,400, an increase of 1,800 (4.9%) from June 2008, but a fall of 45,400 (53.5%) from July 2007.

Outpatient Waiting times

- The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over the 13 weeks standard for a first outpatient appointment following GP referral at the end of July 2008 was 303 (compared to the total of 862,000). Of these 303, 57 were English residents waiting for appointments in Welsh hospitals.

- The number of patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, waiting over 8 weeks at the end of July 2008 was 35,100, an increase of 5,800 (19.8%) from June 2008, but a fall of 28,000 (44.4%) from July 2007.

Additional tables are available here - which include revised data for April 2007 to June 2008

NHS cancelled operations, quarter ending 30 June 2008

The key points from the latest release are:

- During the quarter ending 30 June 2008, 14,700 operations were cancelled at the last minute for non-clinical reasons. In the same period in 2007, there were 12,500 cancelled operations.

- Cancelled operations during the quarter represented 0.9% of all elective activity, compared to 0.8% in the same period in 2007.

- Of these cancellations, 686 (4.7%) of patients were not treated within 28 days of a cancellation.  In the same period in 2007, 613 (4.9%) of patients were not treated within 28 days.

Full tables are available here - which include revised data for April 2007 to March 2008

Inpatient Events

- The number of decisions to admit has increased by 71,700 (6.5%) from last quarter and by 142,800 (13.9%) since the equivalent quarter last year.  Similarly, the number of admissions from the list has increased by 11,700 (1.1%) from last quarter and by 119,400 (12.8%) since the equivalent quarter last year.

Outpatient Referrals and attendances

- First attendances at consultant outpatient clinics have increased by 441,800 (13.8%) to 3.6 million and total attendances increased by 1,092,400 (10.5%) to 11.5 million compared to the equivalent quarter of 2007-08.

- Did not attend (DNA) rates have increased this quarter compared to the equivalent quarter of 2007-08.  This quarter, the percentage of patients who did not attend for their first outpatient attendance is 9.5% a rise of 0.6% against the equivalent quarter of 2007-08.

- The number of GP referrals made has increased by 358,600 (15.6%) against the same period last year.  The number of other referrals made has increased by 111,600 (8.3%) against Q1 2007-08.

Full tables are available here

Critical Care Beds, July 2008 Census

The key points from the latest release are:

- The overall number of open and staffed adult critical care beds was 3,498. This represents 25 (0.7%) more beds than at 15 January 2008, and 71 (2.1%) more beds than one year ago.

Full tables are available here.

Department of Health, UK