Written question WQ89165

Our new ‘Pathways of Care Delay’ reporting framework was formally implemented in April 2023. The framework replaces the former reporting mechanisms that were stood down during the pandemic. Following a review of the previous reporting tool, a joint expert group was established between health and social care teams to consider what necessary updates and improvements were needed to provide us with accurate and comparable data from across Wales.

A key factor of the new Pathways of Care reporting framework is that we now have a standardised definition for a delay which is being used across all health boards. The new definition records all delays over 48 hours from the point a person has been clinically optimised and ready for discharge, together with the reason for the delay. The new framework has also been updated to include more suitable and accurate delay reason codes that provide us with clearer information in relation to any delays as well as complement existing patient flow practices such as Discharge to Recover then Assess (D2RA).

The data provided in the monthly reports by health boards is validated with local authority partners prior to submission to ensure its accuracy, as well as supporting a joined-up approach to reviewing and tackling discharge delays between services. The compiled data is then shared with delivery partners as well as operational and executive leads within health boards and local authorities for their own performance and monitoring purposes.

We are already utilising the monthly reports as part of our discussions with health boards and local authorities in a range of settings including our Integrated Quality, Planning and Delivery Meetings (IQPD) with NHS Executive. Additionally, health boards have been prompted to utilise the Pathways of Care Delay data as part of their NHS Performance Framework submissions for 2023/24 to demonstrate their progress towards improvements in these areas. We will continue to work closely with all our partners to monitor and review the data, particularly leading up to, and over, the winter period so that we can ensure that teams are focusing their efforts in the right areas to tackle delays.

We also publish key highlights of the reports, broken down by health board and local authority level on our Welsh government website. It is our intention to migrate this to the Stats Wales website in the coming months to sit alongside other key health performance data.