Table 1.

Waiting Time by Country and Health Service.

Author and year of publication	Country	Population	Reported waiting time
Elective surgery
Registry data
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018)6	Australia	n = 874 000 elective surgeries	Median (no IQR) = 40 d, 90th percentile 237 d
NHS England (2019)1	England	N = 3 586 090 RTT pathways	Median (no IQR) = 10.1 wk
Self-reported data
Commonwealth Fund Survey (2016)25		Total: 3573	<1 mo (%), 1-4 mo (%), 4 or more months (%), not sure/decline to answer (%)
	Australia	n = 683	56.8, 28.3, 8.4, 6.6
	Canada	n = 557	34.8, 44.0, 18.2, 3.0
	France	n = 173	51.4, 47.0, 1.6, 0.0,
	Germany	n = 124	39.0, 58.1, 0.0, 2.9
	Netherlands	n = 99	48.9, 39.8, 4.5, 6.9
	New Zealand	n = 141	43.3, 38.6, 14.9, 3.2
	Norway	n = 208	37.0, 41.9, 15.3, 5.8
	Sweden	n = 1015	37.3, 46.8, 11.8, 4.1
	Switzerland	n = 219	59.3, 32.8, 6.5, 1.5
	United Kingdom	n = 87	43.4, 31.8, 12.0, 12.8
	United States	n = 268	61.0, 31.7, 3.6, 3.7
ED
Registry data
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2018)9	Australia	n = 8 017 492 ED attendances	72% of patients seen in clinically recommended time. Median wait for first clinical contact: 19 min 90th percentile time: 93 min
Canadian Institute for Health Information (2017)24	Canada	11 200 000 ED attendances	Total time spent in ED 17% higher than 5 y previous
NHS England (2019)10	England	23 800 000 A & E attendances	88.0% of patients spent 4 h or less in A & E
Self-reported data
Canadian Institute for Health Information (2016)25	Canada	4547	29% of respondents report longer than 4 h waiting time
Primary care appointment
Registry data
NHS Digital (2019)31	United Kingdom	23 631 344 primary care appointments
		n = 9 915 851	Same day (42.0%)
		n = 1 628 141	1 d (6.9%)
		n = 4 452 380	2-7 d (18.8%)
		n = 3 309 500	8-14 d (14.0%)
		n = 1 787 293	15-21 d (7.6%)
		n = 1 258 471	22-28 d (5.3%)
		n = 1 273 243	More than 28 d (5.4%)
Practice server database
Sliwa and O’Kane (2011)33	United Kingdom	7000 primary care appointments	Mean (range) 3.4 (1-8) d
Self-reported data
Haggerty et al (2018)35	Canada	1029 primary care patients	66.8% waiting longer than 2 wk
Luque Ramos et al (2018)34	Germany	4805 primary care patients	Mean (SD) 4.1 (10.2) d
Swami et al (2018)32	Australia	3651 primary care physicians	Mean (SD) 4.02 (5.60) d
Specialist care appointment
Registry data
Queensland Health (2019)2	Australia	n = 58 398 patients referred for specialist care by their GP	Median 90th percentile category 2a across all specialties 180 d. range 61 (palliative care) to 565 d (neurosurgery).
South Australia Health (2019)4	Australia	n = unknown patient referred for specialist care by their GP	Median wait across all specialties 5.9 mo, range 0 (cardiothoracic, breast) to 22.9 mo (ENT)
Tasmanian Health Service (2019)5	Australia	n = unknown patients referred for specialist care by their GP	Median 75th percentile wait time across all specialties 234 d, range 8 (vascular) to 1520 d (neurosurgery)
Victorian Agency for Health Information (2019)3	Australia	n = unknown patients referred for specialist care by their GP	Median, 17 d urgentb 56 d routinea
Self-reported data
Barua et al (2018)30	Canada	n = 1718 specialist physicians	Median (no IQR) = 3.2 wk in 1993, 10.2 wk in 2016-2017 and 8.7 wk in 2017
Carrière and Sanmartin (2010)36	Canada	n = 5515 patients	Median (no IQR) = 4.3 wk, 13.9% > 3 mo
Siciliani and Verzulli (2009)37	Europe	Total N = 2914 patients	Mean (no SD) wk:
	Austria	n = 126	1.83
	Denmark	n = 80	5.28
	France	n = 147	3.14
	Greece	n = 85	0.86
	Germany	n = 371	1.84
	Italy	n = 180	2.93
	Netherlands	n = 268	3.47
	Spain	n = 186	4.94
	Sweden	n = 220	9.66
Waiting rooms
Automated time-stamp recording
Ahmad et al (2017)38	Malaysia	n = 756	Mean (no SD) = 41.06 min
Camacho et al (2006)39	United States	n = 2444	Mean (SD) = 20.97 (14.71) min
Kreitz et al (2016)48	United States	n = 3125	Mean (SD) = 27.3 (11.4) min
Mcmullen et al (2013)49	United States	n = 104	Mean (SD) = 43.0 (37.7) min
Patwardhan et al (2013)8	United States	n = 1 167 885	Mean (SD) = 18.4 (24.8) min
Physical patient shadowing
Xie and Or (2017)46	Hong Kong	n = 49	Mean (SD) = 150.5 (55.1) min
Self-reported data
Anderson et al (2007)50	United States	n = 5030	Mean (SD) = 25.2 (20.5) min
Arain et al (2013)47	United Kingdom	n = 529	Mean (SD) = 40.9 (32) min
		n = 501	Mean (SD) = 74 (49) min
Bleustein et al (2014)51	United States	n = 9945	Mean (SD) = 38.0 (61.1) min
McDevitt et al (2015)52	United Kingdom	n = 111	Median (range) = 22 (0-122) min
Patwardhan et al (2013)8	United States	n = 1 128 990	Mean (SD) = 21.40 (37.1) min
Rajpar et al (2000)53	United Kingdom	n = 48	Mean (no SD) = 1.17 h
Luque Ramos et al (2018)34	Germany	n = 4805	Mean (SD) = 30.8 (26.9) min
Allied health care appointment
National registry data
NHS Scotland (Q1 and Q2, 2019)40	Scotland	Total, N = 11 112	Percentage seen
		n = 5218	Less than 4 wk (47.0%)
		n = 2139	4-8 wk (19.2%)
		n = 1698	9-12 wk (15.3%)
		n = 1274	13-16 wk (11.5%)
		n = 783	Greater than 16 wk (7.0%)
Database data
Deslauriers et al (2019)78	Canada	n = 3665, Multidisciplinary Pain Treatment Facilities	Median (IQR) = 126 (50-297) d
Fell et al (2016)43	England	n = 32 899, cardiac rehabilitation	Median = 39 d
Marzolini et al (2015)44	Canada	n = 6497, cardiac rehabilitation	Median (IQR) = 80 (44) d
			Mean (SD) = 101.1 (47.9)
			Mean (SD) 1995-2000 = 104.3 (48.4)
			Mean (SD) 2001-2006 = 97.3 (46.0)
			Mean (SD) 2007-2012 = 100.2 (49.0)
Kirkbride et al (2017)45	England	n = 798 patients waiting for early intervention psychosis services	Median (IQR) = 15 (7-30) d
Self-reported data
Deslauriers et al (2016)41	Canada	n = 83 hospital-based physiotherapy clinics (mean [SD] patients per hospital = 192.1 [176.6])	Median (range) = 4.6 (0-77.4) mo

Note. IQR = interquartile range; RTT = referral to treatment; ED = emergency department; GP = general practitioner; ENT = ear, nose, throat.

^aAppointment required within 90 d.

^bAppointment required within 30 d.