British Health Care Waiting List Crisis

(United Kingdom) Despite all the promises of politicians to cut the time Brits must wait for National Health Service (NHS) care, new data indicate that some patients must wait "in excess of one year" and over half of all patients must wait "longer than 18 weeks."

The 18-week target, set in 2004, is widely considered to be among the most ambitious of the Government's aims for the NHS. A baseline estimate published in December suggested that 35 per cent of patients across the country were treated within this time.

At that time up to a quarter of patients needing operations such as hip or knee replacements were estimated to wait between one and two years for surgery, with a small number waiting longer than this.

The figures showed that most specialities treat between 30 and 50 per cent of inpatients within 18 weeks. In trauma and orthopaedics the figure is only 20 per cent.

The disturbing numbers were contained in a leaked email which also gave advice on how to spin the news when the wait-time data are released to the media. How nice? The socialized medical scheme doesn't work very well so the official stance is to spin the news.

A while back, I had to wait a week to see a doctor and was a little irked. I can't imagine being told that I have a 50-50 chance of seeing a doctor in four and a half months. Of course, if the Dems get their way, I won't need to do any imagining.