NHSScotland waiting times guidance: November 2023

13. Reporting Responsibilities

13.1 Reporting Responsibilities regarding Patient Records

Guidance

Where national reporting on waiting times relies on the submission of electronic patient records to the National Waiting Times datamart, it is the responsibility of the Health Board of Treatment (HBT) to ensure records are submitted for all patients they treat, irrespective of whether the patient resides in the Board. This is to ensure there is a consistent approach to reporting patients, including those who are referred across Health Board areas.

The following waiting time standards are included in this type of national reporting.

• New outpatient appointments.
• Inpatient / day case treatment under the TTG.
• New outpatient appointments at an Allied Health Professional (AHP) led Musculoskeletal (MSK) service

As a patient’s waiting time clock is fully adjustable throughout their journey, the Health Board of receipt of referral (HBR) is required to collect the following data and provide this to HBT on transfer.

• Start date (e.g. Date of Referral Received for outpatients or Decision to Treat for inpatients / day cases).
• Clock adjustment dates and reasons.
• Any additional relevant information.

The HBT should provide the quality assured data in a timely manner. This includes:

• existing waits from data transfers; and
• all relevant information received from the Health Board of Referral.

In relation to submission of data to the National Waiting Times datamart, the above information will be supplemented by additional guidance from Public Health Scotland for both HBR and HBT.

13.2 Reporting Responsibilities ONLY regarding Eight Key Diagnostic Tests and Investigations

The Health Board of Initial Receipt of Referral is responsible for providing an aggregated return of the results of all eight of the key tests to Public Health Scotland.