A waiting times database set up by the Scottish NHS to provide patients with faster access to treatment has come under fire for containing serious errors.
According to a 23 February report in Scotland on Sunday the new system seriously understates the delay facing some hospital patients. The article says that in one case the waiting list for one operation was listed as just four weeks, when the actual wait can be for up to 18-months.
The Scottish Executive told the newspaper it had filled gaps in the database with ‘historic’ information supplied by trusts rather than up-to-date waiting list times.
The online database allows GPs to search information from 3,600 clinics for waiting times in eight clinical areas, including general surgery, gynaecology and orthopaedics. In theory the system is intended to provide the information that will enable patients to make informed choices on where they receive their treatment.
However, according to GPs interviewed by Scotland on Sunday “much of the information in the database bears little resemblance to reality and that patients face disappointment and potentially longer waits as a result of using it.” Aberdeen GP Stuart Scott, was reported as saying that while the database claimed standard waiting times for dermatology appointments in Grampian were four weeks, in reality an adult would have to wait between 14 and 74 weeks.
Glasgow GP Roderick Shaw recounted how he had noticed waiting lists for the general orthopaedic clinic at St John’s Livingston were listed as less than four weeks. But when he called up to book an appointment for his patient he was told the waiting list was actually more than six months.
The revelation of inaccurate and out-of-date data comes only two months after the high profile launch of the waiting list database in December by Scottish Health Minister John Chisholm, when it was heralded as a tool that would improve patient choice and provide “a useful tool in driving down waiting times down.”
The Scottish Executive blamed the situation on not receiving up-to-date information on waiting times from Scotland’s NHS trusts. Rather than leave out information or delay the launch it admitted it had populated parts of the database with “historic information”.
The NHS Scotland waiting lists database system is currently only available to GPs consultants, though after a period of feedback from clinicians it is due to be made available to the public this spring.
An accurate and up-to-date online database of waiting times is also vital to two high profile NHS initiatives in England: the national booked admissions programme and ‘Patient Choice initiative. The NHS in England has perhaps wisely been more circumspect about claims for its waiting list database, a version of which can be accessed on the http://www.nhs.uk website.
The database, which is available to the public, allows waiting times to be searched by clinical speciality and geography. However, the website carries an important qualifier: “The information on this website gives you an idea of waiting times for routine appointments at NHS hospital trusts. It does not tell you precisely how long you will wait to see a particular consultant.”
A far more precise database will be needed to achieve The NHS Plan objectives on waiting lists and booked admissions: “By the end of 2005, waiting lists for hospital appointments and admission will be abolished and replaced with booking systems giving all patients choice and convenience”. A ‘significant number’ of these booking systems will be electronic.
Electronic booked admissions forms one of the main strands of the NHS National IT Programme and is being managed by the NHS Modernisation Agency. In January the Agency placed an OJEC advert for a prime contractor for electronic booking inviting expressions of interest. It is expected that the selection will be made in May 2003. The Agency says that in addition to the core electronic booking service the prime contractor chosen will deliver services such as training, data migration and legacy management services.