4.16 Waiting Lists and Times
4.16a Could the Department provide information
about waiting lists, both distribution by waiting time as well
as mean and median average time, on a district of residence basis
and on a provider unit basis? Could the Department show graphically
changes in mean and median waiting times since March 1988 and
include a table of figures?
4.16b Could the Department provide an
update of Tables 4.15.4 to 4.15.8 on outpatient waiting times?
4.16c Could the Department provide figures
on how many people were removed from waiting lists for day case
treatment and for in-patient treatment (i) because of admission
for treatment and (ii) for reasons other than treatment? How
many people were self-deferred in each six-month period since
September 1988? What rules apply to ensure consistent interpretation
of these figures? Has the Department made any assessment of the
extent to which people removed for reasons other than treatment
in that hospital had either been admitted, died, treated in another
hospital, or no longer required treatment?
4.16.d Could the Department provide charts
and figures showing how trends in emergency and waiting list,
booked and planned activity have moved with waiting lists sizes
since June 1991? Could the Department provide both indices and
actual numbers in each case?
4.16.e Can the Department provide a comparison
of total numbers of people waiting for outpatient appointments
for each year for which figures are available, separately identifying
trends in the average wait for an outpatient appointment?
4.16.f Can the Department estimate the
number of people at each access point of the elective care system
broken down to show:
(a) numbers of GP consultations
(b) numbers of referrals to specialist
outpatient clinics
(c) numbers of attendances at specialist
outpatient clinics
(d) numbers of placements on waiting
lists (differentiated by (i) "waiting list", (ii) "booked"
and (iii) "planned", and(e) numbers of elective episodes
of care, for each year since 1991-92
Would the Department provide a commentary
on changes over time in numbers waiting at each stage, and the
conversion rates between each stage?
4.16.g What additional mechanisms have
been put in place since last year's response to deal with waiting
lists? How is the success of each of these measured? What assessment
have you made of the effectiveness of each? What has been the
cost of each of these?
4.16a Could the Department provide information
about waiting lists, both distribution by waiting time as well
as mean and median average time, on a district of residence basis
and on a provider unit basis? Could the Department show graphically
changes in mean and median waiting times since March 1988 and
include a table of figures?
1. Table 4.16.1 shows the most recent NHS
Trust-based figures for waiting lists and times for ordinary inpatients
and day cases by region. Resident and responsible population
figures are shown in table 4.16.2. Mean and median times on the
list are included in these tables. It should be noted that these
figures show patients waiting on the list at the time of the last
count, ie they are the average lengths of time waited by patients
still on a waiting list.
2. Figure 4.16.1 shows mean and median waiting
times from March 1988 to March 2000. Table 4.16.3 shows the underlying
data.
