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. 2020 Apr 30;57:0046958020910305. doi: 10.1177/0046958020910305

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.

a

Appointment required within 90 d.

b

Appointment required within 30 d.