BMJ 2000;320:1147 ( 22 April )

Letters

Waiting time for cardiac surgery in Scotland is relatively short

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---According to the results of Pell et al's study,1 the main reason why patients from lower socioeconomic groups are disadvantaged is because their cases are characterised as urgent less frequently than are those of affluent patients. Theoretically this effect is maximised the longer the waiting time; when waiting time is relatively short the effect is attenuated.

The authors, who work in Scotland, give a mean overall waiting time of 143.7-158.2 days (depending on the age group); this is relatively short compared with waiting times for heart surgery in England, which commonly exceed 12 and sometimes 18 months. For this reason one would expect a much greater differential in the waiting time between socioeconomic groups in England than the one evidenced in Scotland. Hence the true level of inequalities in waiting times for heart surgery in the United Kingdom is likely to exceed the one calculated in this study.

Prolonged waiting for . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Effect of socioeconomic deprivation on waiting time for cardiac surgery: retrospective cohort study • Commentary: Three decades of the inverse care law
Jill P Pell, Alastair C H Pell, John Norrie, Ian Ford, Stuart M Cobbe, and Julian Tudor Hart
BMJ 2000 320: 15-19. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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