East Ender Dot Cotton can have a hip operation almost a month sooner than the North West’s Vera Duckworth according to new figures released today.
East Ender Dot Cotton can have a hip operation almost a month sooner than the North West’s Vera Duckworth according to new figures released today.
The figures also show that should The Archers’ Joe Grundy ever need a knee operation, he’d be on the operating table nearly 10 weeks before Footballers’ Wives character Kyle Pascoe, who suffered a knee injury in the show.
These figures, the most recent waiting times on the NHS’s most common procedures, are drawn from Norwich Union Healthcare’s latest Waiting List Guide which is part of its online Personal Health Manager.
The data shows that waiting times have improved, but a survey carried out by Norwich Union Healthcare into people’s perceptions of waiting times reveals that despite this, the public is still underestimating how long they’d have to wait for an op.
For example, people expect a five-month wait for a hip operation. Norwich Union Healthcare’s figures show that the wait last year was eight and a half months – or nearly 11 months if you include the initial waiting time to see a surgeon for assessment. It’s an improvement on the nearly 12 month waiting time in 2002.
But it’s bad news for the Government because people polled said they were only prepared to wait just over two and a half months for the procedure. The government target is that no-one should wait longer than six months next year, reduced to a target of three months some time after that.
Dr Doug Wright, clinical development manager at Norwich Union Healthcare, said: "People are not really aware of how long they should expect to wait for an operation, and aren’t taking advantage of the information that is available.
"This means they may be waiting several months for something like a hip operation in their area, when it could actually be done more quickly elsewhere."
The Waiting List Guide data, supplied by independent medical research specialists Dr Foster, shows that waiting times have on the whole improved for five of the most common procedures year-on-year. But it’s too soon to incorporate the effects of Government initiatives to reduce waiting times, such as diagnosis and treatment centres (DTC), into the 2003 figures.
However the DTCs, being rolled out across the country, are cutting waiting times by enabling routine surgery to be carried out in a primary healthcare setting, rather than a hospital.
For example, the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages the Ravenscourt Park DTC in West London – operational for the past year – has seen a massive reduction in waiting times, from 204 days for a hip replacement (from seeing the consultant to date of procedure) in 2002 to just 30 in 2003.
Roger Taylor, research director at Dr Foster, said: "The increased use of diagnosis and treatment centres across the country is already beginning to have an incredible impact on NHS waiting times as demonstrated by the Ravenscourt Park DTC. The full extent of the reduction will be revealed next year as we continue to monitor the effect they are having."
Norwich Union Healthcare’s Personal Health Manager (personalhealthmanager.co.uk) allows visitors to search waiting list data either by procedure, specialty, specific NHS trusts or trusts within selected postcodes and surrounding areas.
Dr Wright added: "We want to encourage people to do a bit more research on the amount of time they could expect to wait for a procedure. They should be aware that it’s possible to compare the waiting times of NHS trusts in their area, go back to their GP and ask to be referred somewhere that has a shorter waiting list.
"By giving customers data that’s easy to access and understand we’re enabling them to make this kind of choice, which they haven’t been doing up till now."
This is borne out by the results of another Norwich Union Healthcare survey, in which almost nine in 10 people say they’d never asked to go to a different consultant than the one to which they’d been referred.
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James Evans: 01904 452 791
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Notes to editors:
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About the research
Consumer research was by commissioned by Norwich Union, and undertaken by TNS, into how long people would expect, and be prepared to wait, for five common procedures. This was compared against ‘actual wait’ data, collated by Dr Foster for Norwich Union’s Waiting List Guide, and which covers the financial year to 31 March 2003. The data focuses on the most common procedures across 8 regions in England and Scotland.
The representative sample of 1,013 GB adults was interviewed during 7-9 May 2004.
| Cataract removal: | Expected Wait | Prepared to Wait | Average Inpatient Wait | Average Total Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of time | 3.8 months | 2.5 months | ~ 6.3 months | ~8.4 months |
| Mean average | ~114 days | ~ 75 days | 190 days | 253 days |
| Hip replacement: | Expected Wait | Prepared to Wait | Average Inpatient Wait | Average Total Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of time | 5 months | 3 months | ~ 4.3 months | ~10.9 months |
| Mean average | ~ 150 days | ~ 90 days | 255 days | 328 days |
| Knee replacement: | Expected Wait | Prepared to Wait | Average Inpatient Wait | Average Total Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of time | 4.9 months | 3 months | ~ 9.8 months | ~ 12.2 months |
| Mean average | ~ 147 days | ~ 90 days | 295 days | 368 days |
| Slipped disc: | Expected Wait | Prepared to Wait | Average Inpatient Wait | Average Total Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of time | 3.8 months | 2.1 months | ~ 2.5 months | ~ 5 months |
| Mean average | ~ 114 days | ~ 63 days | 74 days | 150 days |
| Groin hernia: | Expected Wait | Prepared to Wait | Average Inpatient Wait | Average Total Wait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of time | 3.5 months | 2.2 months | ~ 4.2 months | ~5.4 months |
| Mean average | ~ 105 days | ~ 66 days | 126 days | 162 days |
About Norwich Union Healthcare
Norwich Union Healthcare was founded in 1990 as the healthcare arm of Norwich Union and now provides a range of income protection and private medical insurance products that cover over 750,000 lives. It is one of the largest providers of income protection and private medical insurance in the UK.
Norwich Union Healthcare is a member of the General Insurance Standards Council, the Association of British Insurers and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Norwich Union’s news releases and a selection of images are available from Aviva’s internet press centre at www.aviva.com/media
An ISDN facility is available for studio quality broadcast. Call the press office on 08703 66 68 68
For all life, pensions and equity release media enquiries call 08703 66 68 73
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Dr Foster is the leading independent authority on healthcare quality in the UK. It publishes information which is accessible to the general public and provides information analysis to the professional healthcare community.
An independent Ethics Committee with substantial powers to enforce editorial and research integrity oversees the organisation.
Further information is available at www.drfoster.co.uk or direct from Tim Kelsey, Chief Executive, Dr Foster Limited, 17 St. Helen’s Place, London EC3A 6DY.