Statistical press notice: Monthly critical care beds, cancelled urgent operations and delayed transfers of care data, England, September 2012 and revisions for January 2012-August 2012
The main findings for September 2012 were: Critical Care Beds **There were 3,730 adult critical care beds available with 3,059 occupied, giving…
The main findings for September 2012 were:
Critical Care Beds
**There were 3,730 adult critical care beds available with 3,059 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 82.0%. This is consistent with the low occupancy rates observed during the summer months and comparable to September 2011, where the figure was 81.8%.
- There were 405 paediatric critical care beds available and 298 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 73.6%. This is consistent with the low occupancy rates observed during the summer months and lower than September 2011, where the figure was 76.8%.
- There were 1,368 neo-natal critical care beds available and 957 occupied, giving an occupancy rate of 70.0%. This is the lowest occupancy rate observed in the past year, where figures have ranged between 70.0% 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 244, which compares to 242 in August 2012 and 310 in September 2011. Cancelled urgent operations have ranged between 242 and 419 in the past 12 months.
Table 2 shows information on urgent operations cancelled from August 2010 to September 2012.
Details of cancelled urgent operations data for individual organisations are available on the DH website.
In addition, data on cancelled elective operations can be found on the DH website.
Delayed Transfers of Care
- There were 4,101 patients delayed atmidnighton the last Thursday of the month, of which 2,492 were acute patients.
- There were 114,703 total delayed days during the month, of which 70,074 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 2,893 days since September 2011 and now account for 66% of all delayed days, compared to 62% in September 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 September 2011).
Table 2 shows information on delayed transfers of care from August 2010 to September 2012. Table 3 shows the number of delayed transfers of care by type of care, reason for delay and responsible organisation for September 2012.
Details of delayed transfers of care data for individual organisations are available on the DH website.
Revisions to historical data
- Delayed transfers of care data for January 2012 - August 2012 has been revised, which has resulted in small changes at national level.
- There have been major revisions to cancelled urgent operations data for April 2012 - August 2012, resulting in a significant reduction in cancellations. Data has been revised due to errors in recording at 3 providers, details of which can be found in the individual files for each month.
- There has been a very minor revision to neonatal critical care bed data for April 2012.
Table 4 summarises the impact of revisions at national level on delayed transfers of care and cancelled urgent operations.
Statistical Notes to Editors
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.
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
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