Sexual HealthStatistical Press Notice - Direct Access Audiology Referral To Treatment (RTT) Times Data February 2009, England
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.
Department of Health, UK