Objective: To gain an insight into the waiting periods for cataract, arthroscopic knee and total hip operations and the patients' opinion on this subject.
Design: Retrospective study.
Setting: The district of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Method: A study population of 300 national health insurants who underwent a cataract operation (100), an arthroscopic knee operation (100) or a total hip operation (100) in 1992 and 50 private insurants who underwent a cataract operation in 1992, was obtained by a select sampling. By a structured questionnaire, information about basic variables (age, gender, education, occupation, perceived urgency and form of insurance), waiting periods and opinions on the waiting periods was gathered.
Results: The waiting periods between the specialist consultation and the operation were 5.2 and 7 months for eye, knee and hip patients respectively. The waiting period per hospital varied from 4-7 months for an eye operation, 1-4 months for a knee operation and 2.5-12 months for a hip operation. The waiting period was not affected by basic variables, except the waiting period for hip operation which benefited from a high urgency declaration by the specialist. 60% of the eye patients, 45% of the knee patients and 47% of the hip patients were satisfied about the waiting period. 15% of all patients were dissatisfied about it.
Conclusion: Waiting periods for operations in this study were not determined by patient-specific basic variables, varied strongly between hospitals and did not cause discontent among the majority of the patients, despite durations of mostly several months.