Focus on waiting list still delivering success

25/06/2012
by Rob Findlay

The focus on incomplete pathways continues to deliver results, according to the April 2012 figures just released, with new records broken across all measures of long-waiters still on the list.

The (official) total list size isn’t budging from the trend of recent years, and is likely to be understated because of GP referrals being held up. But long-waiters are nevertheless coming down, both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the waiting list, and that is a good thing.

The number of very-long-waiters, still on the list more than a year after referral, fell again to a record low of 4,317. Of those, some 1,243 are in London (and that excludes Imperial who are still on reporting holiday).

You can find the original data at the Department of Health website here (complete with some nice new tools and trends), and download ourĀ Gooroo NHS waiting times fact checker here.

England-wide picture

Admissions and the total list size remain steady, compared with the seasonal profile of recent years.

Size of waiting list
Size of waiting list
Admissions from waiting list
Admissions from waiting list

All measures of long-waiters on the list continue to fall:

Longwaiters on list
Longwaiters on list

The new target, that 92 per cent of incomplete pathways must be below 18 weeks, is continuing to break new records in spectacular style:

92 percent of waiting list
92 percent of waiting list

All specialties continue to improve, although neurosurgery remains poor and is not improving as fast as the biggest problem in terms of sheer numbers: orthopaedics.

92 percent of waiting list by specialty
92 percent of waiting list by specialty

The proportion of specialties at Trust level, who are achieving the new 92 per cent target, has topped 80 per cent for the first time.

Trust-specialties with 92 percent of waiting list within 18 weeks
Trust-specialties with 92 percent of waiting list within 18 weeks

 

Trust top twenty

The twenty Trusts with the greatest waiting times pressures (omitting Imperial who did not submit data) are:

Trust 92% of waiting list is within Position in April Change Position in March Over-one-year waiters on list
The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS FT 36.9 weeks # 1 no change from # 1 68
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust 27.8 weeks # 2 no change from # 2 14
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 26.6 weeks # 3 up 1 from # 4 0
North Bristol NHS Trust 26.5 weeks # 4 up 1 from # 5 232
Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust 26.2 weeks # 5 up 3 from # 8 14
Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 24.5 weeks # 6 down 3 from # 3 233
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 23.3 weeks # 7 up 2 from # 9 425
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust 22.6 weeks # 8 down 1 from # 7 196
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust 21.5 weeks # 9 up 2 from # 11 0
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust 21.2 weeks # 10 up 3 from # 13 4
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 20.8 weeks # 11 up 3 from # 14 228
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust 20.7 weeks # 12 up 6 from # 18 0
St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust 20.6 weeks # 13 down 7 from # 6 96
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust 20.0 weeks # 14 down 4 from # 10 33
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust 19.9 weeks # 15 up 9 from # 24 54
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust 19.5 weeks # 16 up 3 from # 19 101
East Cheshire NHS Trust 18.3 weeks # 17 up 23 from # 40 17
The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust 18.3 weeks # 18 up 50 from # 68 2
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust 18.3 weeks # 19 up 6 from # 25 130
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust 18.2 weeks # 20 up 21 from # 41 22

Congratulations to Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who dropped out of the table by reducing their 92nd centile waiting time from 20.8 to 15.3 weeks, and to North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (20.7 to 13.2 weeks).

The next 18-weeks stats release is due at 9:30am on Thursday 19 July 2012 (and these will take a bit longer to analyse because they will simultaneously be releasing revisions to previous data).

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