Access to Elective Care

What should really be done about waiting lists?

Anthony Harrison, Bill New
February 2000 | ISBN 978 1 85717 299 7 | 140 pages |

Waiting lists have been a feature of non-urgent or ‘elective’ care ever since the NHS was founded. Over the years there have been various attempts to reduce them, but the lists have continued to grow. Numbers have been reduced under the current Labour government, but some indications suggest that this may be only a temporary reprieve. This publication argues that it is unrealistic to expect waiting lists to disappear altogether. Instead, it argues, the focus must be on managing them better. It proposes a points system used by hospital specialists in New Zealand to decide who should receive priority treatment, based on the severity of patients' symptoms.

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