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Waiting lists. Bone of contention
1Health Services Management Centre, Birmingham.
Insights
Despite a significant increase in orthopaedic consultants, waiting times remain unchanged. Addressing long waiting lists requires admitting 85,000 more patients and potentially establishing specialist centres.
Area of Science:
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Healthcare management
Background:
- Orthopaedic waiting lists represent a significant healthcare challenge.
- Despite a 78% increase in orthopaedic consultants since 1984, average waiting times have shown minimal change.
- Workloads in orthopaedics have decreased by approximately 20% over the last five years.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the trends in orthopaedic consultant numbers, patient workloads, and waiting times.
- To identify the challenges and potential solutions for reducing long waiting lists in orthopaedics.
- To project the future needs for patient admissions to eliminate extended waiting periods.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of historical data on orthopaedic consultant numbers.
- Evaluation of changes in orthopaedic patient workloads.
- Assessment of current waiting list durations and patient admission rates.
Main Results:
- A 78% rise in orthopaedic consultants has not correlated with reduced waiting times.
- Orthopaedic workloads have decreased by approximately 20% in the past five years.
- An estimated 85,000 additional orthopaedic patient admissions are needed in the next five years to clear the backlog.
Conclusions:
- The current increase in orthopaedic consultants has not effectively reduced patient waiting times.
- Consultant opposition exists regarding the expansion of staff grades.
- Establishing specialist centres may be a necessary strategy to manage the orthopaedic patient backlog.
Abstract:
The number of orthopaedic consultants has increased by 78 per cent since 1984, but average waiting time has hardly changed. Orthopaedics is one of the greatest problem areas for waiting lists although workloads have fallen by about a fifth in the past five years. An extra 85,000 orthopaedic patients will have to be admitted over the next five years if the government is to eliminate waits of more than six months. Consultants oppose the expansion of the staff grades. Specialist centres may have to be established to deal with the backlog.