This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Deferred waiting list to be abolished
25/11/2002
A single list of patients waiting for hospital
in-patient and day case treatment will come into force on
April 1, 2003 when the deferred waiting list will be
abolished, it was announced today.
In June, The Audit Scotland report on the management of
waiting lists in Scotland recommended that the rationale
for the deferred waiting list should be reviewed.
In August, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said he
intended to abolish the deferred waiting list as soon as
possible. He asked ISD Scotland to provide a report on the
implications for changing to a single waiting list, and a
timetable for implemetation.
The first single figure under the new format for
in-patient/day care treatment will be published in ISD's
quarterly statistics at the end of August 2003 which will
show the position on June 30, 2003.
From April 1, 2004 there will be a waiting list of
patients on which periods of unavailability for treatment
(and the reasons for this - medical or social or did not
attend) will be recorded replacing the current system of
exception codes.
This is intended to provide open and transparent
recording of patients waiting for treatment as well as
ensuring patients are not disadvantaged.
ISD are currently holding "roadshows" across NHSScotland
to provide guidance on the changes required prior to
implementation and to ensure consistency across
NHSScotland.
The Health Department and ISD are working with
NHSScotland to undertake a review of the existing waiting
times exception codes to ensure that the reasons for
patients unavailability can be clearly identified on the
single inpatient and day case waiting list
Mr Chisholm said:
"We want to be open and transparent in the work of the
NHS. We want to be able to measure progress and have
difficulties flagged up where there are issues.
"The new single in-patient/day case waiting list will
allow us to measure more closely the reasons why patients
may not receive treatment. It will also allow us to gather
a better picture of the challenge posed by those who do not
attend and what action may be needed to tackle this.
"I expect all NHS Trusts to now review all the cases on
their deferred waiting lists to ensure that the reason why
each patient has been classified as deferred is clear,
patients who no longer require treatment are removed, and
for those patients who are now available for treatment,
that this is scheduled as soon as possible."
All patients on the deferred waiting list on March 31,
2003 will transfer to the single inpatient and day case
waiting list on April 1, 2003 with exception coded applied
depending on the reasons why they were on the deferred
list.