NHS IT, Records and Data

Diagnostics waiting times data published

The Department of Health has published the latest data on diagnostics waiting times and activity, showing that 4,300 patients were waiting six weeks or more from original referral for tests.

The NHS Operating Framework 2012/13 introduced an expectation that less than 1% of patients should wait six weeks or longer for a diagnostic test. The data for the month of March saw a reduced number of patients waiting longer than six weeks compared to the previous month.

At the end of March 2012, there were 625,000 patients still waiting for one of 15 key diagnostic tests, and of these 4,300 were waiting six weeks or over from the date of referral. The number of patients waiting six weeks or longer saw a decrease of 1,200 from February 2012, and 6,500 from March 2011.

The 4,300 waiting over six weeks or longer represents 0.7% of all patients waiting for a test. This compares to 0.9% at the end of February 2012 and 1.9% at then end of March 2011.

In total, 1,414,000 of the 15 key diagnostic tests were performed during March 2012. During the year 2011/12, a total of 15,874,000 tests were performed. This represents a 5.5% increase on 2010/11.

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