Prioritizing Patients from the Most Deprived Areas on Elective Waiting Lists in the NHS in England: Estimating the Health and Health Inequality Impact.

ABSTRACT: Introduction. Reducing hospital waiting lists for elective procedures is a policy concern in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. Following growth in waiting lists after COVID-19, the NHS published an elective recovery plan that includes an aim to prioritize patients from deprived areas. We use a previously developed model to estimate the health and health inequality impact under hypothetical targeted versus universal policies to reduce waiting time. Methods. We use a Markov model to estimate the health impact of waiting, by index of multiple deprivation quintile group, for 8 elective procedures. We estimate patients' remaining quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) with baseline waiting times and under 2 hypothetical policy scenarios: 1) a universal policy in which all

SUBMITTER: Gibbs NK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11748141 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature