Chemotherapy patient numbers (FOI)

​Request

I would like to ascertain how many patients have received chemotherapy treatment through the Oncology Department over the last couple of years and how many to date this year.

If possible, how many were on short term treatment ie 12 sessions / three months and how many are / were permanent patients.

Obviously, any other statistics that you have which you believe may be beneficial to us would be useful.

Response

The codes used to generate the data for this response are OPCS X70-X71 and X74.1 which will identify all patients admitted* for chemotherapy for the treatment of malignant or in-situ neoplasms under Oncology and Haematology. Patients receiving care / treatment for any other conditions under these teams will not be identified.

*Not all patients receiving exclusively oral chemotherapy for a regimen will have an admission (ie be treated as an inpatient), as medications are sometimes dispensed in an outpatient setting. Outpatient activity is not coded and is therefore not available in the table.

**Patients will be counted once per year they have received the relevant treatment.