Waiting for selected surgeries – updated dashboard in April 2024

-Automatic translation

The dashboard is based on:

• Submitted data from medical institutions on the number of pending selected surgeries, the number of completed procedures, and waiting times after surgery. Waiting time is the time that elapses between an individual's assessment of the need for a particular surgical procedure and when the procedure has been performed.

• A central database of waiting list information on knee and hip replacements.

The last data recall was in January 2024, so the latest values on the dashboard show the number of people awaiting surgery in January 2024 and the number completing surgery between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023.

Summary

Overall, the number of surgeries has increased since 2023, and waiting lists are shorter. There has been a positive trend in waiting for surgery, and the proportion of people who have waited more than three months for surgery has decreased in most surgery categories. However, the situation remains that too many people are waiting beyond the criteria for acceptable waiting times in all but three categories of action. The Directorate of Health's criteria for acceptable waiting times specifies that 80% of patients will have surgery within 90 days. This criterion is not applicable in surgeries assessed as an urgent priority, e.g., life-threatening diseases.

Inactive wait

It is worth pointing out that in some cases, people do not meet the health criteria to undergo surgery or wish to wait longer when offered surgery. In such cases, the operators should record requests as inactive, in which case the people concerned are not considered to be on the waiting list. When people wish to get surgery again, requests are reactivated, and the time when requests were inactive should be deducted from the waiting time. Landspítali University Hospital uses a registration system that limits the possibility of deducting this inactive time to settle waiting periods. The waiting time is then calculated from the date when the request was initially made and does not reflect that individuals have not been actively waiting the entire time. For this reason, waiting times are not published for knee or hip replacement surgery at Landspítali, as they do not give an accurate estimate of the actual waiting time. While this problem of waiting time estimation is not new, the impact of it seems to be more significant now, when many of those who want surgery at the very first opportunity have accepted out-of-hospital surgery through the Iceland Health effort. Waiting time calculations will be examined with representatives of Landspítali University Hospital and figures will be updated. More data on joint replacement surgery can be seen on the dashboard on the office's website, which is updated monthly.

More information
Kjartan Hreinn Njálsson, assistant to the Medical Director of Health
kjartan.h.njalsson@landlaeknir.is