Ireland’s hospital waiting list system is “flawed, inequitable and in need of reengineering,” according to a report from a group of management specialists, says the British Medical Journal.
Countries with national health systems use waiting lists to ration health care. In addition to waiting lists, there are often “unofficial” waiting lists – obstacles patients must navigate on the way to getting on the official waiting list.
That is apparently the case with hospital waiting lists in the Republic of Ireland, according to the leaked report from the Harvard Association, a Dublin-based group of Harvard University graduates.
Their report is based on interviews with “key stakeholders” in the acute hospital process: hospital consultants, hospital managers, general practitioners and patients.
It recommended that the Irish government “depoliticise” the waiting list, and that private hospitals be given more incentives to conduct more public work.
“There should be a mandatory requirement to inform patients as to the length of waiting lists with the option to go elsewhere,” it concluded.
Source: Doug Payne, Ireland’s waiting lists are inaccurate, British Medical Journal, September 15, 2001.
For BMJ text http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7313/592/j
For more on Health Systems of Other Countries http://www.ncpa.org/pi/health/hedex10d.html
FMF\25 September 2001
