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• Luigi Siciliani

Waiting times for elective (non-urgent) surgery are a main health policy concern in approximately half of OECD countries. Mean waiting times for elective surgical procedures are above three months in several countries and maximum waiting times can stretch into years. They generate dissatisfaction for the patients and among the general public. Is there a solution? This report discusses the waiting-time phenomenon and provides a comparative analysis of policies to tackle waiting times across 12 OECD countries.

At worst, waiting times can lead to deterioration in health, loss of utility and extra costs. However, one surprising result is that there is little evidence of health deterioration from a review of studies of patients waiting for a few months for different elective procedures across a range of countries. Moreover, such patients are quite tolerant of short and moderate waits, although the general public often expresses more concern about waiting.

It is argued that there will be both ...

Les délais d’attente précédant des interventions chirurgicales non urgentes constituent un problème de santé publique majeur dans pratiquement la moitié des pays de l’OCDE. Les délais d’attente médians sont supérieurs à trois mois dans plusieurs pays et les délais maximums peuvent atteindre plusieurs années. Ces attentes sont source d’insatisfaction pour les malades et dans l’opinion. Comment peut-on résoudre ce problème ? Le présent rapport examine le phénomène des délais d’attente et propose une analyse comparative des mesures prises pour tenter d’en venir à bout dans douze pays de l’OCDE.

Les délais d’attente peuvent aller jusqu’à entraîner une détérioration de la santé et une perte de capacités des malades ainsi que des surcoûts. Paradoxalement, l’analyse d’études effectuées dans un certain nombre de pays au sujet de malades devant attendre quelques mois avant de subir différentes interventions non urgentes ne fait pas véritablement apparaître de détérioration de la santé des ...

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Paper provided by OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs in its series OECD Health Working Papers with number 6.

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Date of creation: 07 Jul 2003
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Handle: RePEc:oec:elsaad:6-en

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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1. Fabrizio Iacone & Steve Martin & Luigi Siciliani & Peter C Smith, 2007. "Modelling the Dynamics of a Public Health Care System: Evidence from Time-Series Data," Working Papers 029cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
   Other versions:
   • Fabrizio Iacone & Steve Martin & Luigi Siciliani & Peter C Smith, 2007. "Modelling the Dynamics of a Public Health Care System: Evidence from Time-Series Data," Discussion Papers 07/23, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
2. Luigi Siciliani, Anderson Stanciole, Rowena Jacobs, 2008. "Do waiting times reduce hospital costs?," Discussion Papers 08/02, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
3. Brekke, Kurt Richard & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2007. "Competition and Waiting Times in Hospital Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 6285, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
   Other versions:
   • Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2007. "Competition and Waiting Times in Hospital Markets," NIPE Working Papers 9/2007, NIPE - Universidade do Minho. [Downloadable!]
   • Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2007. "Competition and Waiting Times in Hospital Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
   • Brekke, Kurt R. & Siciliani, Luigi & Straume, Odd Rune, 2008. "Competition and waiting times in hospital markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1607-1628, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
4. Luigi Siciliani, 2005. "Does more choice reduce waiting times?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(1), pages 17-23. [Downloadable!]
5. Luigi Siciliani & Steve Martin, 2007. "An empirical analysis of the impact of choice on waiting times," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(8), pages 763-779. [Downloadable!]
6. Hugh Gravelle & Luigi Siciliani, 2007. "Third degree waiting time discrimination: optimal allocation of a public sector health care treatment under rationing by waiting," Discussion Papers 07/22, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
7. Luigi Siciliani, 2007. "Optimal Contracts for Health Services in the Presence of Waiting Times and Asymmetric Information," Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1661-1661. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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