Allied Health Professional Referral To Treatment Measurement

An Allied Health Professional Referral To Treatment Measurement  is a REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD.

In 2008, the Department of Health and Social Care  published 'Framing the Contribution of Allied Health Professionals', which sets out three key aspects for improving the SERVICES  which  ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS  in NHS Allied Health Professional Services (Referral To Treatment Measurement) provide.

These are:

• To mandate the collection of Referral To Treatment information for ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS and support SERVICE  redesign to improve SERVICES  for PATIENTS

• To promote the benefits of self-referral to Physiotherapy SERVICES

• To improve the quality of SERVICES  delivered

The Department of Health and Social Care  introduced voluntary collection of ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD waiting time information from April 2010, and mandatory collection from April 2011.  The Community Services Data Set  and the Commissioning Data Sets (version 6-2 onwards) include the facility to report the ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD  waiting time data elements which are used for waiting time measurement.

The ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS mandated to collect and flow Referral To Treatment data are:

• Art Therapists, Music Therapists and Dramatherapists (Arts Therapists)

• Chiropodists

  / Podiatrist s

• Dietitians
• Occupational Therapists
• Orthoptists
• Physiotherapists
• Prosthetists

   and Orthotists

• Radiographers

   (Diagnostic and Therapeutic)

• Speech and Language Therapists

There is no maximum waiting time target attached to an ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD, so no adjustments can be applied to the calculated waiting time between the REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD START DATE  and the REFERRAL TO TREATMENT PERIOD END DATE.  However, locally the EARLIEST CLINICALLY APPROPRIATE DATE  and the EARLIEST REASONABLE OFFER DATE  can be used by Health Care Providers  and their Commissioners to analyse unexpectedly long waits for First Definitive Treatment.

ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS working as part of a Consultant Led Service in secondary care are excluded.

Further guidance relating to the Allied Health Professional Referral To Treatment initiative can be found on the Department of Health and Social Care  at: Allied Health Professional (AHP) Referral to Treatment (RTT) guide.