Community Services Statistics, January 2022

A service referral is a request for a care service to be provided for a person needing care. This could include patient self-referrals for an appointment to see or to be in contact with a care professional. 

Across all submitters of referrals data, there were 1,282,885 referral requests in total during January 2022. Of these, 246,570 referrals were for children and young people, 367,850 referrals were for adults aged 19-64, and 668,100 were for adults aged 65 and over.

Across all submitters of referral data in January 2022, there were 939,245 patients with a referral received during the month, of which 217,920 were children and young people, 307,350 were adults aged 19-64, and 413,660 were adults aged 65 and over.

Referral reason is submitted in 60.8% of records. Where recorded (excluding 'Reason for referral not known' and 'Missing Value / Value Outside Parameters'), the top 3 reasons
for referral are Musculoskeletal Problems, Healthy Child Pathway & Haematology/Phlebotomy.

More detailed information on referral reason, including breakdowns by age band and gender are available in the accompanying data file.