bolster.data_sources.health_ni.diagnostic_waiting_times

NISRA Diagnostic Waiting Times Module.

Provides access to Northern Ireland’s diagnostic waiting times statistics, covering patients waiting for diagnostic tests across HSC Trusts, diagnostic services, and categories of test.

Waiting Time Bands:

  • Total: All patients waiting (any duration)

  • 0–9 weeks: Patients waiting 0–9 weeks

  • >9 weeks: Patients waiting more than 9 weeks

  • >26 weeks: Patients waiting more than 26 weeks

Data Coverage:

  • Q4 2007/08 (quarter ending March 2008) to present

  • Quarterly frequency

  • 5 HSC Trusts: Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern, Western

  • Categories: Imaging, Endoscopy, Physiological measurements (and ‘All’)

  • Individual diagnostic services (endoscopy, radiology, physiological, etc.)

HSC Trusts:

Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern, Western

Original data source:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/diagnostic-waiting-times

Data is fetched from the NISRA PxStat API using matrix DWT.

Example

>>> from bolster.data_sources.nisra import diagnostic_waiting_times as dwt
>>> df = dwt.get_latest_diagnostic_waiting_times()
>>> sorted(df.columns.tolist())
['category', 'date', 'over_26_weeks', 'over_9_weeks', 'performance_rate', 'quarter', 'total_waiting', 'trust', 'within_9_weeks', 'year']

Attributes

logger

EXPECTED_TRUSTS

Functions

get_latest_diagnostic_waiting_times([trust, year, ...])

Get diagnostic waiting times by HSC Trust and category of test.

validate_diagnostic_waiting_times(df)

Validate that diagnostic waiting times data is internally consistent.

Module Contents

bolster.data_sources.health_ni.diagnostic_waiting_times.logger[source]
bolster.data_sources.health_ni.diagnostic_waiting_times.EXPECTED_TRUSTS[source]
bolster.data_sources.health_ni.diagnostic_waiting_times.get_latest_diagnostic_waiting_times(trust=None, year=None, force_refresh=False)[source]

Get diagnostic waiting times by HSC Trust and category of test.

Returns aggregate-level data (all diagnostic services combined) pivoted so that each row represents one trust/quarter with waiting band columns.

Parameters:

  • trust (str | None) – Optional HSC Trust name to filter (e.g. "Belfast"). If None all trusts are returned (NI-wide aggregate excluded).

  • year (int | None) – Optional calendar year filter. If None all years returned.

  • force_refresh (bool) – Accepted for API compatibility but ignored; the PxStat API always returns the latest data without caching.

Returns:

  • date: Timestamp (quarter end date)

  • quarter: Quarter label (e.g. "2023/24Q1")

  • year: Calendar year of the quarter end

  • trust: HSC Trust name

  • category: Category of test ("All categories of test" for this aggregate view)

  • total_waiting: Total patients waiting (any duration)

  • within_9_weeks: Patients waiting 0–9 weeks

  • over_9_weeks: Patients waiting >9 weeks

  • over_26_weeks: Patients waiting >26 weeks

Return type:

DataFrame with columns

Example

>>> df = get_latest_diagnostic_waiting_times()
>>> "Belfast" in df["trust"].values
True
>>> "total_waiting" in df.columns
True
bolster.data_sources.health_ni.diagnostic_waiting_times.validate_diagnostic_waiting_times(df)[source]

Validate that diagnostic waiting times data is internally consistent.

Checks that required columns are present, values are non-negative, performance rates are within 0–1, and there is sufficient data.

Parameters:

df (pandas.DataFrame) – DataFrame as returned by get_latest_diagnostic_waiting_times().

Returns:

True if all validation checks pass.

Raises:

ValueError – If any validation check fails.

Return type:

bool