Community Services Statistics, December 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 1,216,285 referral requests in total during December 2021. Of these, 235,210 referrals were for children and young people, 340,055 referrals were for adults aged 19-64, and 640,660 were for adults aged 65 and over.

Across all submitters of referral data in December 2021, there were 883,110 patients with a referral received during the month, of which 207,275 were children and young people, 281,495 were adults aged 19-64, and 394,025 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.