Community Services Statistics May 2021

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 1,208,530 referral requests in total during May 2021. Of these, 222,000 referrals were for children and young people, 359,435 referrals were for adults aged 19-64, and 627,085 were for adults aged 65 and over.

Across all submitters of referral data in May 2021, there were 890,275 patients with a referral received during the month, of which 195,375 were children and young people, 299,575 were adults aged 19-64, and 395,365 were adults aged 65 and over.

Referral reason is submitted in 60.3% 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.