Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector
What Works?
Over the past decade, many OECD countries have introduced new policies to tackle excessive
waiting times for elective surgery with some success. However, in the wake of the
recent economic downturn and severe pressures on public budgets, waiting times times
may rise again, and it is important to understand which policies work. In addition,
the European Union has introduced new regulations to allow patients to seek care in
other member states, if there are long delays in treatment. This book provides a
framework to understand why there are waiting lists for elective surgery in some OECD
countries and not in others. It also describes how waiting times are measured in OECD
countries, which differ widely, and makes recommendations for best practice. Finally,
it reviews different policy approaches to tackling excessive waiting times. Some countries
have introduced guarantees to patients that they will not wait too long for treatment.
These policies work only if they are accompanied by sanctions on health providers
to ensure the guarantee is met or if they allow greater choice of health-care providers
including the private sector. Many countries have also introduced policies to expand
supply of surgical services, but these policies have generally not succeeded in the
long-term in bringing down waiting times. Given the increasing demand for elective
surgery, some countries have experimented with policies to improve priorisation of
who is entitled to elective surgery. These policies are promising, but difficult to
implement.
Published on February 04, 2013
In series:OECD Health Policy Studiesview more titles