The forgotten wait: official waiting times often misleading
Abstract
Official waiting times rarely take account of the wait for investigations needed prior to determining what treatment to offer. A postal survey was carried out of hospitals in the northwest of England, to gauge waiting times for commonly requested investigations. Waiting times were shortest when there was a high suspicion of underlying malignancy, with 92 per cent under four weeks. When malignancy was thought unlikely, the wait for investigations was much longer, with some departments quoting waits of over eight months. It is concluded that the wait for investigations is often considerable and should be included in official waiting times.
Keywords
Citation
Pope, V. and Sykes, P.A. (2003), "The forgotten wait: official waiting times often misleading", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 108-111. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777270310471586
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited