Community Services Statistics, August 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 1,201,200 referral requests in total during August 2021. Of these, 210,530 referrals were for children and young people, 358,715 referrals were for adults aged 19-64, and 631,950 were for adults aged 65 and over.

Across all submitters of referral data in August 2021, there were 888,610 patients with a referral received during the month, of which 187,150 were children and young people, 300,700 were adults aged 19-64, and 400,805 were adults aged 65 and over.

Referral reason is submitted in 60.1% 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.