To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for a hernia operation in each NHS board area.
The majority of patients whorequire in-patient and day case treatment, including hernia operations, are treatedquickly. Nearly 53% of the patients treated in NHSScotland hospitals receive immediatetreatment and never join a waiting list. Of those who do wait almost 41% are admittedwithin one month and over 70% within three months.
For those who wait longer, thecurrent maximum waiting time is six months. This guarantee will be reduced to 18weeks from the end of 2007. On 31 March 2006, no NHSScotland patient with a guarantee had waited morethan six months for in-patient and day case treatment.
Median waiting times are derivedfrom information about individual patients who have been treated and dischargedfrom hospital during each year. This data includes patients who have had an AvailabilityStatus Code (ASC) applied, for example because they were medically unfit or askedfor their admission to be deferred for personal or social reasons, and to whom theExecutive’s waiting time guarantee did not apply. Periods of unavailability fortreatment are therefore included in the calculation of median waiting times, whichmeans that the median waits are overstated.
The following table shows themedian wait, by NHS board, for all patients who were discharged from hospital followinga hernia operation in 2005.
NHSScotland: Median WaitingTime for a Hernia1 Operation by NHS Board of residence. Year ending 31December 2005P
NHS Board Area | Median Wait (Days)+ |
Argyll and Clyde | 77 |
Ayrshire and Arran | 98 |
Borders | 56 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 79 |
Fife | 113 |
Forth Valley | 115 |
Grampian | 122 |
Greater Glasgow | 74 |
Highland | 105 |
Lanarkshire | 144 |
Lothian | 124 |
Orkney | 54* |
Shetland | 39* |
Tayside | 93 |
Western Isles | 40 |
NHSScotland | 98 |
Source:ISD SMR01.
PProvisional.
Notes:
1.Hernia operations are defined as all OPCS4 procedures “T19” to “T27” inclusive.
* Figures should be treatedwith caution as they are derived from a possibly unrepresentative small number ofdischarges (more than 14 but less than 50).
+ Median waits includes patients with an Availability Status Code. Consequently, true waiting timesare likely to be overstated because of periods of medical unavailability, etc.