Rules and Guidance
Guidance and Definitional rules
Waiting Times Recording Manual
The Waiting Times Recording Manual defines each of the data items which form the waiting times 'dataset' from 1 January 2008 onwards. This manual describes the New Ways data items, recording rules and codes used.
Waiting Times Recording Manual v4.2 [280KB] Published January 2012. New codes as follows:
- 029 added to WT4 to identify one-stop clinics (excluding cataracts)
- 060 added to WT4 to identify Exceptional Aesthetic procedures (excluded from current stage of treatment targets)
New Ways Guidance Document
Applying the Scottish Executive Health Department Guidance is a document which outlines the key elements of New Ways. This document should be read in conjunction with the Appendix and Summary of Changes. The appendix and summary outline definitional changes to New Ways Rules around reasonable offer, unavailability and PFB as of 1 April 2009.
- Appendix [57KB] Published February 2009
- Summary of changes [27KB] Published February 2009
- Summary of changes addendum [32KB] [updated July 2009]
- Applying the Scottish Executive Health Department guidance v3.0 [690KB] Published December 2007
Desktop Guide
The desktop guide [1.4MB] is a single page summary of the New Ways guidance. For further information on receiving copies please contact jane.goodall@nhs.net. Updated on 16 October 2007 to take account of revised CNA rules and further updated on 25 March 2009 to take account of revised definitions around reasonable offer, unavailability, infrequent services and response time for PFB offer.
Validation rules
Validation manual
This manual gives detail of the validation that is applied to waiting times records that are submitted to the ISD Warehouse. Each validation rule has a reference, error message, affected data items, rule notes and flag detail.
- Waiting Times Validation Manual V2.3 [430KB] – last updated 21 Oct 2010
Validation changes under consultation
- Validation: Changes & Consultation [36KB] - issued February 2010
- Validation: Changes & consultation [ 27KB] - issued September 2009
- Validation: Changes & consultation [ 31KB] - issued February 2009
Historical changes
- Changes to validation [256KB] introduced in October 2008
Useful Resources
Frequently asked Questions (FAQs)
- What is the 'New Ways' project?
- Is New Ways mandatory for services such as Mental Health, Allied Health Professionals, Nurse-led clinics etc.?
- How are queries about New Ways guidance handled?
- What should happen if the hospital has to cancel the patient's appointment or admission?
- How should waits for diagnostic tests be recorded New Ways?
- Our clinics are in remote areas, therefore they are only held once every 4 weeks or less frequently, do we still need to make two 'reasonable offers' of appointment?
Monitoring and measurement of waiting times
- Does New Ways change how waiting times are measured?
- When should a patient be added to the waiting list, at the decision to treat or at a pre-operative assessment clinic?
- How will return outpatients for procedure be distinguished from 'ordinary' return outpatients?
- How will a patient's waiting time be calculated under New Ways?
- Should I be recording all non-emergency patients, even if they have a very short wait?
- Where a patient is booked directly onto a clinic list, what date should be used as the 'Date referral received' where a referral letter is not received until after the patient is seen?
- What is the correct format of codes for recording Allied Health Professionals (AHP)?
- What is non-attendance?
- What happens if a patient contacts the service to say that they cannot attend (CNA) and wish to reschedule?
- What happens if the patient fails to attend (DNA) after agreeing an appointment / admission?
- What if the patient has a valid reason for not attending?
- What should happen when patients 'Could Not Wait'?
- We use Patient Focused Booking (PFB) and in discussion with the patient the agreed date may not always be the first two dates available. Should there be any period of unavailability recorded?
- What should we record when a patient fails to respond to a PFB invitation?
- Will New Ways be used to measure the cardiac (GP to intervention via Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic) and cataract patient journey?
- Do the terms 'patient's health board area', 'patient's area', and 'their area of residence' are used all mean the same thing?
- What should happen if a patient is found to be unfit at a pre-operative assessment?
Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic
- Are patients on the GP to intervention via Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic (RACPC) pathway considered 'urgent' at all stages and therefore not appropriate to give them 21 days notice of appointments and admissions?
Reasonable offers of appointments and admissions
- What is a reasonable offer?
- We send patients a letter offering an appointment date and ask them to contact us if that date isn't suitable. Does this mean we now have to offer two dates in our letter?
- We regularly have slots become available at short notice. Does this mean we should no longer offer these slots?
- Is it not unfair to ask these patients to make what may be long journeys, to attend a clinic when, if they wait a bit longer, they will be seen a lot nearer home?
- What should happen if a patient requests to be seen by a specific clinician even when there is no clinical requirement to do so?
- What should happen if a patient declines an admission date in an out-of-area location? (added October 2009)
- How much notice should we give patients before we can assume implied acceptance to a written offer?
- If a patient attends an appointment and then is subsequently removed from the waiting list what date the should be recorded as the removal date?
- When should I use Removal reason 59 'Transferred to another NHS Board area'? (WT28 'Reason for removal from list')?
- When we refer patients to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital or to a private hospital, what do we record under WT28 'Reason for removal from list'?
- We transfer patients between hospitals within our NHS Board area on a daily basis, how should this be recorded under New Ways?
- Why does information on transfers from our hospitals require to be collected?
- What is unavailability?
- What if a patient is unavailable at the time the decision to treat them is made?
- What if a patient becomes unavailable when they are already on a waiting list?
- What happens if the patient is still unavailable after their 13 week review?
- Can a single waiting list period have multiple periods of unavailability?
- Can appointments be made within a period of unavailability?
- Should unavailability be recorded retrospectively?
- A patient is socially unavailable due to holidays, however they will also be unavailable for a number of weeks before the actual holiday date due to the recuperation period required. How should this be recorded?
- Is it mandatory to record the end date of an unavailability period?
- We do our data validation for SMRs locally, yet under New Ways data validation is done centrally - why the change?
- When a clinic is only held one day a week, and the patient is unable to attend only on that day, what unavailability should be recorded?
Patient leaflet
At the request of the Cabinet Secretary, the Scottish Government Health Directorate (SGHD) have produced a revised patient guidance leaflet entitled 'Hospital appointments and waiting times explained' which sets out the principles of New Ways and the move to an 18 week referral to treatment maximum wait.
The new patient guidance leaflet supercedes the green ISD leaflet issued at the end of 2007. If you have any queries regarding supplies of this new leaflet, please contact Margaret Duncan at the SGHD by e-mail at Margaret.Duncan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or by telephone on 0131 244 2291.
Should a patient require more information around the content of the new patient guidance leaflet entitled 'Hospital appointments and waiting times explained', they can get further advice from the Health Information team at NHS24. This team provides comprehensive up-to-date health information and self care advice for people in Scotland. The team will be able to offer general advice on the content of the leaflet.
Other waiting times documents
New Ways
'New Ways' implements the recommendations found in the Scottish Executive Health Department publication 'Fair to All Personal to Each' (December 2004)
Managing Waiting Times - A Good Practice Guidelines
Managing Waiting Times was published in 2003 by the National Waiting Times Unit of the Scottish Executive Health Department
