Statistical press notice: Monthly critical care beds, cancelled urgent operations and delayed transfers of care data, England, October 2012

The main findings for October 2012 were:

Critical Care Beds

• There were 3,731 adult critical care beds available with 3,083 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 82.6%. This is high compared to rates observed over the summer months and higher than October 2011 where the figure was 81.7%.
• There were 410 paediatric critical care beds available and 320 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 78.0%. This is high compared to rates observed over the summer months and higher than October 2011 where the figure was 77.5%.
• There were 1,377 neo-natal critical care beds available and 963 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 69.9%. This is the lowest occupancy rate observed in the past year, where the figures have ranged between 69.9% and 76.4%.

Table 1 shows Critical Care Bed Occupancy rates since August 2010.

Details of critical care data for individual organisations are available on the DH website.

Cancelled Urgent Operations

• The number of urgent operations cancelled was 301, which compares to 244 in September 2012 and 301 in October 2011. Cancelled urgent operations have ranged between 229 and 419 in the past 12 months.

Table 2 shows information on urgent operations cancelled from August 2010 to October 2012.

Details of cancelled urgent operations data for individual organisations are available at DH website.

In addition, data on cancelled elective operations can be found on the DH website.  

Delayed Transfers of Care

• There were 4,126 patients delayed atmidnighton the last Thursday of the month, of which 2,533 were acute patients.
• There were 117,251 total delayed days during the month, of which 71,077 were acute. 66% of all delays were attributable to the NHS, 28% were attributable to Social Care and 6% where both agencies were responsible.
• The main reason for NHS delays was “patients awaiting further non-acute NHS care”, this accounted for 30% of all NHS delays. The main reason for Social Care delays was “patients awaiting a residential home placement or availability”, this accounted for 26% of all Social Care delays. Where both the NHS and Social Care are attributable, the major reason for delay was “patients awaiting completion of assessment”.
• This distribution of delays against responsible organisation has been gradually changing over the last year. Delays attributable to the NHS have increased by 4,401 days since October 2011 and now account for 66% of all delayed days, compared to 62% in October 2011.
• The split between acute and non-acute delays is similar to recent months (61% and 39% of all delays, respectively), but the share of delays that are in acute care has risen 6 percentage points over the last year (from 55% in October 2011).
• The distribution of delays between the reasons for DTOC remains broadly similar compared to a year ago (October 2011). However, there has been an increase in delays caused by patients awaiting completion of assessments and delays caused by patients waiting further non-acute NHS care (2,674 and 1,010 more delayed days respectively).

Table 2 shows information on delayed transfers of care from August 2010 to October 2012. Table 3 shows the number of delayed transfers of care by type of care, reason for delay and responsible organisation for October 2012.

Details of delayed transfers of care data for individual organisations are available on the DH website. 

Table 1 – Critical Care Bed Occupancy Rates – August 2010 to October 2012

Notes:

1. Data relating to the number of available and occupied critical care beds is a monthly snapshot taken at midnight on the last Thursday of each month and can fluctuate from month to month.
2. Before February 2011, data on Critical Care beds were published bi-annually in a separate collection. Therefore, Critical Care data published until January should be treated with a degree of caution.

Table 2 – Cancelled Operations and Delayed Transfers of Care – August 2010 to October 2012

Notes:

1. A change from weekly to monthly data in Aug-10 led to data quality issues with the first few months of delayed transfers of care data in the monthly collection.
2. Information on the numbers of people delayed on the last Thursday of the reporting period and the total number of Delayed Days are not directly comparable because the first is a ‘snapshot’ and the second a cumulative total.

 Table 3 – Delayed Transfers of Care by Type of Care, Reason for Delay and Responsible Organisation – October 2012

Notes:

1. NA means the combination of reason and responsible organisation is not permitted.
2. Information on the numbers of people delayed on the last Thursday of the reporting period and the total number of Delayed Days are not directly comparable because the first is a ‘snapshot’ and the second a cumulative total.

Statistical Notes to Editors

1. 1.      Critical Care data

Data relating to the number of available and occupied critical care beds is a monthly snapshot taken at midnight on the last Thursday of each month and can fluctuate from month to month.

1. 2.      Delayed Transfers of Care data

A delayed transfer of care occurs when a patient is medically fit for discharge from acute or non-acute care and is still occupying a bed. For a more detailed definition please read the guidance on the DH website.

Data on the number of patients with a delayed transfers of care is a monthly snapshot taken atmidnighton the last Thursday of each month and can fluctuate from month to month. Data on the number of delayed days is a cumulative figure for the month and therefore, the two are not comparable.

Data on delayed transfers of care is collected from providers of NHS funded care and is split by:

• Local Authority that is responsible for each patient delayed
• Agency responsible for delay (NHS, Social Services or both)
• Type of care that the patient receives (acute or non-acute)
• Reason for delay

A detailed breakdown of the data can be found on the Department of Health website in CSV format.

3.      Trust and Local Authority level data

Delayed transfers of care data covers NHS patients in English Hospitals, who may or may not reside inEnglandand is published on both a trust and Local Authority basis.

Trust level reflects data at organisation level for those organisations that provide NHS funded care, for example acute Trusts, community providers, mental health trusts and Social Enterprise organisations.

Local Authority data reflects data on a regional population basis, i.e. Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibility (CASSRs) that are responsible for all patients who reside in their region.

4.      Data Quality

Monthly SitReps data has been collected and published since August 2010. Prior to August 2010, data was collected weekly and was un-validated management information.

Delayed transfers of care data published during the early months of the collection from August 2010 to October 2010 should be treated with a degree of caution as a change from a weekly to a monthly data collection led to data quality issues. Since October, there has been a significant improvement in the coverage and accuracy of this data.

Critical care data published until January should be treated with a degree of caution as data on Critical Care beds was published bi-annually in a separate collection until January 2011. Since February 2011, there has been a significant improvement in the coverage and accuracy of this data.

5.      Data Availability

Monthly Sitreps data is published approximately 3 – 4 weeks after the end of the reference period.

6.      Revisions

Revisions to previous month’s data are made in line with the Department of Health’s revisions protocol for performance monitoring data. Future revisions will be made on a six monthly cycle. The revisions protocol can be found on the DH website.

7.      Feedback Welcomed

We welcome feedback on the content and presentation of Critical Care, Cancelled Operations and Delayed Transfers of Care statistics within this Statistical Press Notice and those published on the DH website. Please email any comments on this, or any other issues regarding the SitReps data and statistics, to: unify2@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Additional Information

For press enquiries, please contact the DH press office.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) statistician responsible for producing these data is:
Mark Svenson
Knowledge and Intelligence
Department of Health
Room 4E63, Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7UE
For data queries, email: unify2@dh.gsi.gov.uk