Outpatient and Consultation Delay Times     

FOI REFERENCE: 24299   FOI DATE:  14^th August 2024    

I would be grateful if you could provide me with information relating to the impact covid had on outpatient services and referrals in the years 2019 to 2024.

This would be in relation to physiotherapy outpatients in the trust, ENT and Neurology.

In particular lengths of delays in referrals, consultations and treatments. For instance, prior to covid the timescale for waiting to see physiotherapy, ENT and Neurology in 2019 was. then each subsequent year to mid-2024 (or the latest available wait times)

Caveats:

• The average wait times between the initial referral and the initial appointment on their pathway.
• Where the initial appointment is between 01 JAN 2019 and 30 JUN 2024.
• Excluding initial appointments where the appointment was cancelled by the hospital.
• Excluding dummy appointments set to 12am in records.
• Excluding where the initial referral date is the same as the initial appointment date.
• Since not all physiotherapy referrals use RTT it can be difficult to track, limited to difference in referral date and initial appointment date less than 730 days, or the RTT pathway ID is not present.

Physiotherapy
Initial Appointment Year	Average Time Referral To Appointment	Average Weeks
2019	35	5
2020	34	5
2021	28	4
2022	31	4
2023	36	5
2024 (Up to the end of June)	40	6

Neurology
Initial Appointment Year	Average Time Referral To Appointment	Average Weeks
2019	93	13
2020	87	12
2021	85	12
2022	136	19
2023	147	21
2024 (Up to the end of June)	133	19

ENT
Initial Appointment Year	Average Time Referral To Appointment	Average Weeks
2019	34	5
2020	57	8
2021	106	15
2022	191	27
2023	252	36
2024 (Up to the end of June)	137	20

ln addition the guidelines you gave General practitioners during covid lockdown and following for referrals.

Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust included messages on Electronic Referral Service (ERS) that GP would see to inform them that Out Patient Appointments waits would increase due to Covid. 

Also informed GP’s that patients appointments would be cancelled and added to a waiting list. Prior to Covid ERS referrals were booked via direct bookable services (i.e. GP/Patient could book their own appointment on line), this service was changed to a Referral Assessment Service (RAS), so that the referral could be triaged before being booked into the correct clinic/service.

There was also an agreement between the Trust and GP’s that Advice and Guidance service on ERS should be used prior to sending a referral, therefore reduce the need to send an unnecessary referral or deal with the referral differently i.e. not necessary book an appointment but for the consultant to provide advice instead.