The Planned Care Referral (PCR) Data Set captures all referrals received by NHS Wales’ provider organisations for the following service requests:
• Request for Advice
• Request for Investigation
• Request for Treatment
This includes all consultant/nurse and non-consultant led clinic activity1. In addition, any Consultant-to-Consultant referrals when a patient is starting a new Outpatient pathway under a different specialty. All Fracture and Urgent Eye Clinics should be included within both the Planned Care Referral and Outpatient Activity data sets.
The data set includes referrals from any source and is not limited to only those referrals made by Primary Care.
Currently the dataset captures referrals outside of the RTT dataset, namely Mental Health and Maternity including obstetrics. As new datasets are developed it is anticipated that these will be removed to be reported under the dedicated minimum datasets. All diagnostic and therapy referrals will continue to be captured as a source of monitoring potential alternative planned care pathways (this can be reviewed as other developments occur around this area).
1 An independent practitioner who is responsible and accountable for the assessment of patients with undiagnosed or diagnosed conditions and can make clinical decisions without supervision to manage the clinical condition of the patient. These are medical professionals who have the autonomy to make a clinical decision to move the patient onto the next stage of their pathway.