Delivering the 18 Weeks Referral to Treatment Standard Output Report

Planning and DeliveryProfileThe organisational profile of Dental Specialties and the associated expectations ofdelivery are critical to the achievement of the waiting times targets and the provisionof high quality patient care.The Task and Finish Group has worked to raise the profile of Dental Specialties insecondary care and to emphasise their inclusion in the 18 Weeks Referral toTreatment Standard.Boards are asked to ensure that dental specialties are fully integrated into all aspectsof their 18 weeks RTT work, especially generic workstreams on information,performance monitoring and management, service redesign and pathway work.This will facilitate organisational learning and the adoption and spread of goodpractice waiting times management and delivery (i.e. reduce a tendency to reinventthe wheel).Dental Specialties should also be a standard part of each organisations’ regulardelivery management meetings, underpinned by high level leadership and support toaddress bottlenecks and improve access to services.MythbustingFact: Dental Specialties are no different to other acute specialties and are expectedto deliver to the national waiting times standards.Action Planning - Waiting Times Delivery ProcessesNHS Boards should continue to mainstream Dental Specialties into establishedwaiting times delivery processes, and learn from good practice approaches.Measurement ConsiderationsOne of the initial actions of the Task and Finish Group was to assess waiting timesinformation provided to the Information Services Division (ISD). The Task and FinishGroup has identified significant concerns with the existing data available for dentalspecialties. Although Boards have historically provided some Stage of Treatmentdata in their submissions to ISD, this is not deemed complete or sufficiently robust tofully inform day-to-day management and improvement actions. Validation systemsand processes are not embedded, and the data must therefore be treated withcaution.Dental Specialties Task & Finish Group – January 2011 13