Median and 95th Percentile of the Number of Days Waited From Receipt of an Urgent Referral With Suspicion of Cancer to First Cancer Treatment

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Care Transitions
Country
Scotland
Publishing Organisation
Public Health Scotland: Cancer Waiting times
Type of Quality Indicator
Process
IOM Quality Dimension
Timeliness
Domain
Access / Waiting Times

Defining Attributes

Definition

Median and 95th percentile of the number of days waited from receipt of an urgent referral with suspicion of cancer to first cancer treatment.

Numerator

Median and 95th percentile of the number of days from referral to treatment, after any adjustment. Referral to Treatment = Total number of days from referral to treatment MINUS Total waiting times adjustment. Waiting times adjustment is the cumulative number of days by which the waiting times pathway can be adjusted before/after the decision to treat. This can equal 0.

Denominator

This is a continuous variable measure. The target population is urgent referrals with suspicion of cancer who receive their first cancer treatment (inferred).

Exclusions

Patients who had a clinically complex pathway, who died before treatment or refused treatment.

Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments
Stratifications

Data Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

Responsibility for collating and submitting the data to ISD lies with the NHS Board that received the patient's initial referral to secondary care. Data is collected by cancer trackers and administrative staff (including medical secretaries) across NHS Scotland, and are based on locally available information drawn from sources such as patient administrative systems, laboratory systems, and medical records across the country; which are then recorded onto the NHS Boards' Tracking systems.

Frequency of Data Collection
Monthly
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
30
Reporting Methods

Published on the Public Health Scotland website report: Cancer Waiting Times in NHS Scotland.

Reporting Frequency
Quarterly
Reporting Frequency in Days
91
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
Yes

Source and Reference Attributes

Technical Specifications
Link to Measurement Tools
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
No
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
12 March 2025