RTT (referral to treatment) has been slow and this means that in some areas it took 52+ weeks to get referred to in the hospital over an 18 week period. The interactive map is of the local waiting lists of the NHS England around the month of February this year. In the selection box below, one can view all the specialties such as cardiology, cardio-thoracic surgery, dermatology, elderly medicine, ENT, gastroenterology, general medicine, general surgery, gynaecology, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, oral surgery, orthopaedics, other medical, other mental health, other other, other paediatric, other surgical, plastic surgery, respiratory medicine, rheumatology, urology or click a particular specialty with the duration of weeks in mind ranging from 0-18 weeks, 18-26 weeks, 26-40 weeks, and lastly 40-52 weeks in addition to the total list size. The graphs and charts can be viewed in sections of RTT map, without DTA map, targets, targets overview, and trust lookup.
One senior ambulance service figure told HSJ: “Every ambulance service is angry, frustrated [and] worried. [The IRP] is critical infrastructure for 999 call taking and minimises any delay for a patient ringing 999.”
They added there were “always times when demand spikes outstrips availability within a trust”, and said local ambulance services would struggle to “pick up the cost”.
The NHS England has confirmed that it will no longer renew the contract for IRP (Intelligent Routing Platform), the service will be discontinued after 3 months. During the pandemic the IRP was a standing pillar on the demand for ambulance services since its implementation in November 2022. Its function was to redirect the 999 calls to another trust in the area if the patient’s local ambulance was in high demand. Now as it was before the pandemic days, individual ambulance trusts will start to deal with the call answering. The delays caused while answering 999 calls have been improved. Mean call answering times in 2022-23 were 39 seconds, but fell to five seconds in 2024-25. Meanwhile, the volume of calls requiring rerouting has dropped to around 35 calls a day.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “Answering patient calls is the responsibility of ambulance trusts. NHS England’s strategy has been to work with trusts to improve call handling so that rerouting is not needed, not least because there are benefits for patients in the call being answered by the home ambulance service where alternatives to conveyance can be coordinated.
“We are now close to achieving that goal, with outstanding issues in a small number of services. This is why we have put in place a three-month extension to the commercial arrangements to allow a smooth transition back to the pre-pandemic arrangements, and value for money for the taxpayer.”
A more detailed analysis can be obtained from the Gooroo website:
References:
https://www.hsj.co.uk/quality-and-performance/mapped-rtt-waiting-times/7039128.article
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