Community Services Statistics, December 2025

A service referral is a request for a care service to be provided for a person needing care. This could include patient self-referrals for an appointment to see or to be in contact with a care professional. 

Across all submitters of referrals data, there were 1,690,485 referral requests in total during December 2025. Of these, 258,615 referrals were for children and young people, 463,855 referrals were for adults aged 19 to 64, and 964,890 were for adults aged 65 and over.

Across all submitters of referral data in December 2025, there were 1,153,130 patients with a referral received during the month, of which 226,710 were children and young people, 378,110 were adults aged 19 to 64, and 545,260 were adults aged 65 and over.

Referral reason is submitted in 70.9% of records. Where recorded (excluding 'Reason for referral not known' and 'Missing Value / Value Outside Parameters'), the top 3 reasons for referral are Musculoskeletal Problems, Haematology/Phlebotomy & Healthy Child Pathway.

More detailed information on referral reason, including breakdowns by age band and gender are available in the accompanying data file.