NHS Continuing Healthcare Activity Statistics for England, Quarter 1 2015-16 Report, Experimental Statistics

Data for the first quarter of 2015-16 are the ninth to be collected under the new NHS structural arrangements. The estimated data collected for quarter 4 have been confirmed or corrected and eight CCGs have submitted revisions to their data since the quarter 4 report was published. The CCGs affected by corrections are identified in the footnotes of the spreadsheet. The aggregated totals in which these CCGs fall are also affected.

As at the end of the first quarter of 2015-16:

• 61,900 patients were eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) in quarter 1. This equates to 68.4 patients per 50,000 population aged 18 or over.
• The number of patients eligible at the end of the first quarter has shown a 1.7 per cent decrease compared with those eligible at the end of the previous quarter, but a 0.4 per cent increase when compared with the same quarter in 2014-15.
• 24,881 patients were newly eligible for NHS CHC in quarter 1, equating to 27.5 patients per 50,000 population aged 18 or over.
• This equates to a 3.4 per cent decrease on the numbers of newly eligible patients in quarter 4 and a 9.0 per cent increase when compared with quarter 1 of the previous year, explained to some extent by a recent increase in fast-track applications, which in their nature have a very high conversion rate (fast-tracked applicants are usually eligible for care).