Statistical Press Notice - Direct Access Audiology Referral To Treatment (RTT) Times Data February 2009, England

Main Category: Ear, Nose and Throat
Article Date: 15 May 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The "Improving Access to Audiology Services in England", document in March 2007 by stated that:

"Improving Access to Audiology Services in England sets out a simple aspiration: for local health systems to transform the experience of the audiology service for all their patients. This requires a radical reduction in waiting...no local health system will be credible in claiming success on 18 weeks if it does not make excellent progress in tackling long waiting times affecting large numbers of its local population, "

Data to monitor against this aspiration is today being published for the fifth time.

Data is being published on Direct Access Audiology patients whose pathways were completed during February 2009 (completed pathways) and on those patients who were still waiting at the end of February 2009 (incomplete pathways)

Publication is an important mechanism in order to improve coverage and completeness of the data.

A data completeness assessment is being published alongside the figures on completed pathways. Details on the data completeness methodology are available on the departmental website.

Currently national data completeness is 99.3%. However, there are a range of values across the providing organisations. The department continues to work with providing organisations.

The data completeness assessment compares the number of completed pathways (with a known clock start) reported in the Direct Access Audiology RTT return against the expected number of pathways.

Where possible, we have used a 5 month moving average of DM01 Audiological Assessment Waiting List Activity to assess the denominator for completeness.

Where there has either been missing data or an evident discontinuity then this has been addressed in calculating their completeness score

In total, 30,587 patients, for whom English commissioners are responsible, completed their Direct Access Audiology RTT pathway during February 2009.

The NHS reported both the clock stop and the clock start 30,518 (99.8%) of completed Direct Access Audiology RTT pathways.

Of those pathways with both a known clock stop and a known clock start, 99.3% of patients completed their referral to treatment pathway within 18 weeks.

Source
Department of Health, UK