Waiting lists for hospital treatment in the Netherlands increased by 2% last year, despite a 130 million guilder (£36m; $54m) initiative to reduce them. A report commissioned by the government, presented to parliament last week, concludes that an increase in demand has left waiting times “unacceptably long.”
Waiting times for individual specialties, however, have improved. In orthopaedics they have dropped from 16 to 12 weeks and in ophthalmology from 16 to 15 weeks. Capacity too has increased, with 20000 more operations carried out, but the number waiting for treatment has reached about 150000.
The Dutch health minister, Els Borst, has called for all hospitals to publish waiting times on the internet to enable patients to choose the fastest treatment. Since April the Dutch Hospitals Association's internet site (www.nvz-ziekenhuizen.nl) has published details of some hospital waiting times, updated each month and broken down into specialties and regional averages.
The number of hospitals participating is increasing, but the scheme is voluntary, and a minority still provide no, or incomplete, information—largely, said the Dutch Hospitals Association, because of technical difficulties in gathering the figures.
Patients' organisations suspect, however, that some hospitals are reluctant to advertise poor performance. Ms Borst argues that patients have a right to this information. “I feel that by the end of the summer, information on waiting times should be completely available,” she said.
Waiting times have long been a contentious issue in Dutch medicine. In 1998 a joint platform to tackle the problem was launched by all the main healthcare organisations, including the Royal Dutch Medical Association (BMJ 1998;316:959). It has drawn up a list of maximum waiting times for routine treatment that should be achieved by 2003. These require 80% of clinical treatment to be carried out within five weeks.
Ms Borst agreed that some waiting times remain unacceptable but emphasised that it is the length of the wait, not of the lists, which is important.