Question reference: S6W-09454
- Asked by: Gillian Mackay, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 29 June 2022
-
Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 July 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time has been for (a) adults and (b) children to receive hospital treatment from audiology services, following a GP or other referral, in each NHS board in each year since 2014.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) receives monthly data from most NHS Boards on the number of patients covered by the 18 weeks Referral to Treatment (RTT) standard seen within each specialty, including audiology. Due to the aggregate nature of this data collection, the requested detail on average length of wait and age are not available.
However, the following table shows the total number of patients seen and the number that waited over 18 weeks to be seen for audiology services across NHS Scotland, from January 2014 to December 2021 – the latest complete calendar year. This includes all patients reported as seen on the 18-week Referral to Treatment (RTT) pathway for audiology.
Total patients seen and number of patients that waited over 18 weeks, January 2014 – December 2021, NHS Scotland, Audiology
Calendar Year | Total Number Seen
| Number seen within 18 weeks
| Number seen after 18 weeks
| Unknown
|
2014 | 103,960
| 95,527
| 7,891
| 542
|
2015 | 107,894
| 998,82
| 7,499 | 513
|
2016 | 107,742
| 94,918
| 93,140
| 170 |
2017 | 94,918
| 82,647
| 12,218
| 53
|
2018 | 93,140
| 74,373
| 18,731
| 36
|
2019 | 92,673
| 71,274
| 21,341
| 58
|
2020* | 47,793
| 31,677
| 16,052
| 64
|
2021* | 60,750
| 47,164
| 13,543
| 43
|
Source: PHS 18 Weeks RTT Database
Note:
* Due to the complexities of 18 weeks RTT local data collection and reporting, the length of wait cannot be accurately measured by the Board of treatment for all patients.
* There is missing data for these years, as NHS Grampian have been unable to submit data since February 2020, NHS Ayrshire and Arran have not submitted data since April 2020 and NHS Tayside have been unable to submit data since May 2021. This should be taken into consideration when interpreting the data.