Statistical Press Notice: Critical Care, Cancelled Operations and Delayed Transfers of Care data, October 2011 - GOV.UK

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.

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 at midnight on 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.

Delayed transfers of care data covers NHS patients in English Hospitals, who may or may not reside in England and 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.

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.

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

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 Department of Health website.

Delayed Transfers of Care data was last revised in October 2011. Critical Care and Cancelled Operations data was last revised in July 2011.

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: [email protected]

For press enquiries, please contact the DH press office on 020 7210 5221.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) statistician responsible for producing these data is: