Increase in resources should lead to reduced waiting times

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7392.763

BMJ 2003;326:763 ( 5 April )

Letters

Increase in resources should lead to reduced waiting times

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

EDITOR $---$ Although highly topical, the paper by Martin et al on NHS waiting lists illustrates the misleading policy signals thatcan emerge from an inadequate analytic method.¹ The paper findslittle and inconsistent support for associations of prolongedwaiting times with markers of capacity, independent sector activity,or need in the surgical specialties examined. Hard pressed policymakers might therefore infer that increased resources will notameliorate the problem of NHS waitingtimes.

Yet an emerging economic literature, to which the authors do not refer, indicates the reverse. The key problem is that thewaiting phenomenon may be the result of a subtle interaction betweenthe demand for and supply of surgical capacity. Consequently,contemporary associations between capacity and waiting time willreflect a jumble of influences on demand and supply. A model isrequired that enables analysts to disentangle the effects of demandandsupply.

Applying these principles . . . [Full text of this article]

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NHS waiting lists and evidence of national or local failure: analysis of health service data: Richard M Martin, Jonathan A C Sterne, David Gunnell, Shah Ebrahim, George Davey Smith, and Stephen Frankel
BMJ 2003 326: 188. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]