FOI Ref: 0082FOI2021

24th September 2020

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

We are pleased to respond to your request for information and our response is set out below:

Request

I am asking for this information under the Freedom of Information Act.

I am interested in the number of incidents per month where patients died, after they were referred for non-emergency consultant-led elective treatment but had yet to start treatment. i.e. While the patient was on an ‘incomplete pathway’ following a referral for consultant-led elective treatment.

According to the 2018/19 Annual Report for RTT waiting time statistics for consultant-led elective care, there are a number of activities that end the Referral To Treatment (RTT) pathway. One of these is if the ‘patient died before treatment’. [See page 4 and page 26].

I have already asked NHS England for these data on a monthly basis at a national level but have been told they do not collate them.

However, I was told by the NHS England press office that commissioner and provider organisations do record when a patient dies while on an incomplete pathway, which makes sense if the statistics are to be accurate.

For background, every month commissioners and providers pass NHS England data on incomplete RTT pathway statistics – see here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2020-21/

These give figures for the ‘Total number of incomplete pathways’ for each CCG, broken down by ‘Treatment Function’ (e.g. Urology, Trauma & Orthopaedics etc), as well as a ‘Total’ for each CCG. For example, at NHS Sheffield CCG the Total number of incomplete pathways outstanding in June 2020 was 31,262.

Please can you tell me:

The total number of occasions per calendar month when a patient died while on an incomplete RTT pathway, for each month from January 2018 to the latest available month (July or August 2020).

Response

NHS Sheffield CCG does not hold this information; please contact Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust at sth.foi@nhs.net where they will be able to further assist you with your request.