The National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012

The waiting time period

46.—(1) The waiting time period for a person, as referred to in regulation 45(4)(c), begins with the start date and ends when any of the following paragraphs applies.

(2) The referred person received appropriate treatment.

(3) The referred person commenced therapy or received a healthcare science intervention where a consultant, a member of a consultant-led team or an individual providing an interface service decides that the therapy or that intervention is the treatment that is most appropriate for that person.

(4) A person’s name is added to a national transplant waiting list.

(5) The referred person is notified, verbally or in writing, that the calculation of the period of eighteen weeks beginning on the start date no longer applies in their case because—

(a) it is more appropriate for that person to receive treatment from a primary care service;

(b) a clinical decision is made to start a period of monitoring of that person prior to any decision being made as to what, if any, treatment should be provided;

(c) a clinical decision is made that no treatment should be provided to that person;

(d) they did not attend the first appointment made as a result of the referral by the health service provider to whom they were referred and they—

(i) had been made aware of the consequences of not attending an appointment, and

(ii) had not requested in advance of the date for the first appointment that the appointment be re-arranged for a different date; or

(e) they are being discharged back in to the care of their general medical practitioner because they did not attend an appointment, other than an appointment referred to in sub-paragraph (d), made as a result of the referral by the health service provider to whom they were referred and they—

(i) had been made aware of the consequences of not attending an appointment, and

(ii) had not requested in advance of the date for that appointment that the appointment be re-arranged for a different date.