Poorer patients wait longer for heart surgery than affluent ones

Socioeconomically deprived patients are more prone to develop coronary heart disease but less likely to undergo cardiac surgery. Pell et al (p 15) report a retrospective cohort study of 26 642 patients referred for surgery. Deprived patients waited three weeks longer for surgery than the most affluent. The odds of being treated urgently were only 0.5 after allowance for age, sex, and type of operation. When urgent and routine cases were considered separately, there was no significant difference in waiting times between the most and least deprived. Deprived patients may be further disadvantaged by having to wait longer for surgery because of being given lower priority.

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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]