New way of managing waiting lists is fairer for patients

The National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland has made big changes in how it manages waiting lists since 2008 and these have made the system fairer for patients. The NHS has done well to implement these complex new arrangements.

An Audit Scotland report, Managing NHS waiting lists – A review of new arrangements, looks at how the NHS has applied the new arrangements, known as New Ways, and how this has affected patients. New Ways aims to manage patients more consistently and bring an end to patients being put on what were sometimes referred to as ‘hidden waiting lists’, where they would lose their guarantee of being treated within a certain period of time.

The report finds that the NHS has broadly achieved these aims, and the changes have resulted in a system that is fairer for patients. But the health service now needs to do more to make the new arrangements work as effectively as possible and to help patients understand New Ways and its implications.

NHS boards vary in how they deal with patients who do not or cannot attend appointments and this may not always be appropriate. The NHS also needs to get a better understanding of patients’ needs so that it can give them information about appointments in the most useful way.

The report also finds that the NHS is not accurately recording all relevant information about patient waits which makes it difficult to demonstrate that it is managing all patients correctly in line with the new guidance.

Auditor General for Scotland, Robert Black, said:

“Waiting times are very important to patients and the new arrangements have improved the way the NHS manages waiting lists. The NHS now needs to build on this to make sure that the new arrangements work well for everyone.

“Patients have responsibilities to attend for appointments. Under the new guidance patients who fail to attend may be taken off the waiting list and referred back to their GP and it’s crucial that the NHS tells patients this. The NHS also needs to give people enough notice of appointments and make sure that they get information about their appointment in a way they can understand so that they are in a good position to be able to attend.”