A monthly report summarising data on activity and performance in the Welsh NHS. It includes the latest available monthly information plus a summary of long term trends.

1. NHS Activity &
Performance Summary
January/February
2020
19 March 2020

2. A&E performance against the 4
hour target increased this month,
and less patients spent longer than
12 hours in A&E. The number of patients
waiting over 8 weeks
for diagnostic tests
increased, and the
number waiting over 14
weeks for therapy
services increased.
The percentage of patients waiting less
than 26 weeks from referral to treatment
decreased and the number waiting
longer than 36 weeks increased.
The average number
of daily referrals
received increased
over the month.
The percentage of cancer
patients starting treatment within
the target time decreased for
patients on both the urgent and
not via urgent pathways.
Average daily
calls to the
ambulance
service
decreased from
last month; the
65% target was
met for the
second month in
a row.
The number of delayed
transfers of care
increased this
month.

3. 79.0% of patients
newly diagnosed with cancer
via the Urgent route started
treatment within target time
(62 days), down 1.6
percentage points from
December.
94.6% of patients
newly diagnosed with cancer
not via the Urgent route
started treatment within
target time (31 days), down
2.0 percentage points from
December.
NHS Cancer Waiting Times
January

4. 83.4% of patient
pathways waiting to start
treatment in January had
been waiting less than
26 weeks, 0.2 percentage
points less than
December.
Referral to Treatment Times
January
27,314 patient
pathways had been
waiting over 36 weeks to
start treatment in January,
an increase of 1,765 since
December.

5. 238 people were
waiting over 14 weeks
for therapy services in
January, an increase
of 54 compared to
December.
NHS diagnostic and therapy service waiting times
January
5,087 patients were
waiting over 8 weeks for
diagnostic tests in
January, up 185 from
December.

6. Time spent in NHS accident and emergency departments
February
5,249 patients
spent 12 hours or
more in A&E in
February, 1,711 less
than in January.
74.6% of
patients spent less
than 4 hours in A&E
in February, 1.1
percentage points
more than in January.

7. Delayed Transfers of Care
February
448 delayed
transfers of care
were reported in the
February 2020
census, an
increase from 423 in
January 2020.

8. Ambulance services
February
The percentage of red calls arriving at the
scene within 8 minutes in February 2020 was
up from the previous month and above the 65%
target for the second month in a row.
Please see note on the next page.

9. Ambulance services
Ambulance response times
As part of the continual review of the clinical response model, the Welsh
Ambulance Service regularly reviews call handling practices and the
categorisation of incidents. An update to call handling practices in summer
2019 appears to have resulted in an increased Red incident volume. Further
work is being undertaken to understand this change. Therefore, it is not
possible to compare red incident volumes in recent months at present.
Increases in red incident volumes may also impact on performance due to the
additional resources required to attend a red incident.

10. Web Links
NHS Cancer Waiting Times
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
Referral to Treatment Times
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
NHS diagnostic and therapy service waiting
times
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
Ambulance services
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
Delayed Transfers of Care
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
Time spent in NHS accident and emergency
departments
NHS activity and performance summary dashboard
StatsWales
Annual publication
Further information
Contact: stats.healthinfo@gov.wales