National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set: Concept of Operation and Patient Pathway Scenarios.

The National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set is a generic data set designed to support the monitoring of waiting times for a variety of different pathways of cancer care. For the purpose of this data collection cancer is defined using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. The full list of International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnosis codes is available on the NHS England website at: Cancer Waiting Times.

Collection and submission of the National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set is to be managed according to the maximum waiting time and information requirements of the pathway of care for each individual PATIENT. These requirements for providers of cancer SERVICES to return data to the Cancer Waiting Times Database are defined using different scenarios.

• Scenario 1a:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has not had a Decision To Treat, has not had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 1b:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has not had a Decision To Treat, has had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 1c:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a direct access diagnostic test result that suggested an urgent suspected cancer referral with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait' was required, and where a locally agreed escalation process to secondary care has been followed (as defined in National Cancer Waiting Times Monitoring Data Set - A Guide), where the PATIENT has not had the Decision To Treat, and has not had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 1d:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has had the Decision To Treat, has had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 1e:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has not had a Decision To Treat, has not had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. The Health Care Provider sends the PATIENT to another Health Care Provider, that is, makes an inter-provider transfer.
• Scenario 1f:
  The Health Care Provider receiving an inter-provider transfer of a PATIENT, where the PATIENT is first seen at a different Health Care Provider, and where the PATIENT has not had a Decision To Treat, has not had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. The Health Care Provider then subsequently sends the PATIENT to another Health Care Provider, that is, makes a further inter-provider transfer.
• Scenario 1g:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT is first seen following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has not had a Decision To Treat, has not had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 2a:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives First Definitive Treatment for cancer following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme, and where the PATIENT has had the Decision To Treat, has had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 2b:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives First Definitive Treatment for cancer following an inter-provider transfer, and where the PATIENT has had the Decision To Treat, and has had the diagnosis outcome communicated, and the PATIENT has not been excluded from the Cancer Faster Diagnosis Pathway.
• Scenario 3:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives second or subsequent treatment for cancer following a REFERRAL REQUEST with PRIORITY TYPE 'Two Week Wait', or where an urgent referral is from an NHS Cancer Screening Programme. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 4:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives First Definitive Treatment for cancer following a consultant upgrade onto a 62 day PATIENT PATHWAY. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 5:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives second or subsequent treatment for cancer following a consultant upgrade onto a 62 day PATIENT PATHWAY. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 6:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives First Definitive Treatment for cancer following a REFERRAL REQUEST from another SOURCE OF REFERRAL FOR OUT-PATIENTS or a different PRIORITY TYPE. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.
• Scenario 7:
  The Health Care Provider where the PATIENT receives second or subsequent treatment for cancer following a REFERRAL REQUEST from another SOURCE OF REFERRAL FOR OUT-PATIENTS or a different PRIORITY TYPE. No inter-provider transfers are in progress.

The columns in the table below show which data items are required for a range of health care scenarios:

Data Set Notation:

• M = Mandatory: the Standard Contract Schedule 5 requires NHS provider ORGANISATIONS to submit this information on a monthly basis. NHS England require the data to be submitted a number of working days after the end of each month or quarter. This submission schedule is set out on the NHS England website at: Cancer Waiting Times Data Collection (CWT).
• M* = Mandatory if applicable: the Standard Contract Schedule 5 requires NHS provider ORGANISATIONS to submit this information on a monthly basis, where collection of the item was applicable to them. NHS England require the data to be submitted a number of working days after the end of each month or quarter. This submission schedule is set out on the NHS England website at: Cancer Waiting Times Data Collection (CWT).
• O = Optional
• O* = Optional if applicable: These optional fields should only be populated if they relate to the PATIENT PATHWAY identified in the scenarios and the conditions required for their use are met.
• N/A = Not Applicable

Note: Inter-Provider Transfers:

• # First transfer involving the Health Care Provider
• ## Second transfer involving the Health Care Provider. There can be up to ten inter-provider transfers involving many ORGANISATIONS, but an individual ORGANISATION can only be involved in two transfers of a PATIENT.

Full details of the validation rules and processes are available on the NHS England website at: Cancer Waiting Times.