• Biosimilars
  • Drug Development/R&D
  • All Topics
OHE OHE
Newsletter SignupSubscribe

News & Insights
  • News
  • Events
  • Insights
  • Bulletin
  • News
  • Events
  • Insights
  • Bulletin

News & Insights

  • News
  • Events
  • Insights
  • Bulletin
Newsletter SignupSubscribe
  • News
  • Events
  • Insights
  • Bulletin

Close
OHE OHE
  • Research & Publications
  • News & Insights
  • Education
  • Innovation Policy Prize
  • Events
  • About Us
  • OHE Experts
  • Contact Us
Newsletter SignupSubscribe

Research & Publications

All Publications

Filter by:
  • Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
  • Biosimilars
  • Cell and Gene Therapies
  • Chronic Diseases
  • Combination Therapies
  • COVID-19 Research
  • Digital Health
  • Drug Development/R&D
  • Emerging Markets
  • EQ-5D and PROMs
  • Health Care Systems
  • Health Data and Statistics
  • Health Technology Assessment
  • Precision Medicine
  • Real World Evidence
  • Use of Medicines
  • Value-Based Pricing
  • Vaccine Research
  • Economics of Innovation
  • Measuring and Valuing Outcomes
  • Policy, Organisation and Incentives in Health Systems
  • Value, Affordability and Decision Making

News & Insights

  • News
  • Events
  • Insights
  • Bulletin

Education

  • Education Hub
  • OHE Graduate School
  • EVIA Programme

Innovation Policy Prize

  • The Prize Fund
  • 2022 Prize Fund

Latest Research & Publications

Proposal for a General Outcome-based Value Attribution Framework for Combination Therapies

CombTher_Adobe_photoguns_portrait
Read more
© photoguns
  • Digital Health

Navigating the Landscape of Digital Health – United Kingdom

Healthcare_Adobe_elenabsl
Read more

2021 OHE Annual Report to the Charity Commission

charityreport_lina-trochez-unsplash_landscape
Read more
© Lina Trochez/Unsplash

Supporting the Era of Green Pharmaceuticals in the UK

Sustainability_AdobeStock_270582392_landscape
Read more

Quality of life and wellbeing in individuals with experience of fertility problems and assisted reproductive techniques

Quality of life assisted reproduction Cover
Read more
  • Cell and Gene Therapies
  • Value, Affordability, and…

Health Technology Assessment of Gene Therapies: Are Our Methods Fit for Purpose?

gene_therapies_national-cancer-institute-unsplash_landscape
Read more
© NCI/Unsplash
  • Drug Development/R&D
  • Economics of Innovation
  • Health Policy and Regulation

Limitations of CBO’s Simulation Model of New Drug Development as a Tool for Policymakers

CBO-US_mayer-tawfik-K4Ckc0AxgDI-unsplash_landscape
Read more
© Mayer Tawfik/Unsplash
  • Measuring and Valuing Outcomes

When Generic Measures Fail to Reflect What Matters to Patients: Three Case Studies

PROMS_unsplash_National Cancer Institute_landscape
Read more
© NCI/Unsplash
Close
OHE
  • All Publications

    Filter by:
    • Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
    • Biosimilars
    • Cell and Gene Therapies
    • Chronic Diseases
    • Combination Therapies
    • COVID-19 Research
    • Digital Health
    • Drug Development/R&D
    • Emerging Markets
    • EQ-5D and PROMs
    • Health Care Systems
    • Health Data and Statistics
    • Health Technology Assessment
    • Precision Medicine
    • Real World Evidence
    • Use of Medicines
    • Value-Based Pricing
    • Vaccine Research
    • Economics of Innovation
    • Measuring and Valuing Outcomes
    • Policy, Organisation and Incentives in Health Systems
    • Value, Affordability and Decision Making
    • News
    • Events
    • Insights
    • Bulletin
    • Education Hub
    • OHE Graduate School
    • EVIA Programme
    • The Prize Fund
    • 2022 Prize Fund
  • Events
  • About Us
  • OHE Experts
  • Contact Us
Newsletter SignupSubscribe
Back
  • News
11 min read 27th October 2015

Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector: What Works?

On 16th September Professor Luigi Siciliani led an OHE lunchtime seminar on waiting time policies in the health sector. The slides are now available. On 16th September Professor Luigi Siciliani of the University of York led an OHE lunchtime seminar…

Share:
  •  Twitter
  •  LinkedIn
  •  Facebook
  • has-icon Email

On 16th September Professor Luigi Siciliani led an OHE lunchtime seminar on waiting time policies in the health sector. The slides are now available.

On 16th September Professor Luigi Siciliani of the University of York led an OHE lunchtime seminar on waiting time policies in the health sector.

Professor Siciliani gave a summary of health sector waiting time policies across 13 OECD countries. He highlighted that the most common policy seems to be a form of maximum waiting time guarantee. 

Increasingly, such guarantees are backed with targets for providers and sanctions for non-compliance (for example England and Finland). The guarantees often go hand-in-hand with choice, competition and an increase in supply (for example Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands). 

Demand-side policies attempt to define more rigorous clinical thresholds. However, they have proved difficult to implement. A promising policy is to link waiting time guarantees to different categories of clinical need, a form of prioritisation. 

Professor Siciliani also presented comparative evidence of waiting times across OECD countries over the last decade. Waiting times for elective procedures in the UK declined between 2001 and 2008, but have been stable in recent years. 

In some countries, for example the Netherlands, dramatic reductions in waiting times have been seen, but these appear to have come at a cost, as health care expenditure has also increased rapidly. 

Finally, Prof Siciliani discussed inequalities in waiting times by socioeconomic status. Several studies show that patients with lower socioeconomic status wait longer for some procedures in several countries. These results could have important implications for waiting list prioritisation. 

Waiting Time Policies in the Health Sector from Office of Health Economics

For more information see:

Siciliani, Borowitz and Moran (eds.), 2013. Waiting time policies in the health sector: what works? OECD Health Policy Studies, OECD publishing.

Siciliani, Moran and Borowitz, 2014. Measuring and comparing health care waiting times in OECD countries, Health Policy, 118(3), pp.292-303.

Moscelli, Siciliani, Gutacker and Cookson, 2015. Socioeconomic inequality of access to healthcare: Does patients’ choice explain the gradient? Evidence from the English NHS, CHE working paper, 112.

Find details of upcoming OHE seminars here.

  • Healthcare Systems
  • Policy, Organisation and…
  • Presentations

Related News

  • News
  • March 2020

How do we Get and Pay for New Antibiotics? Proposed New Models for Value Assessment and Contracting for Payment.

Read more
  • News
  • March 2020

Price Transparency: Good or Bad? What Does Literature and Theory Tell Us?

Read more
  • News
  • January 2020

Funding Challenges in the Malaysian Health Care System

Read more
  • News
  • January 2020

OHE at HESG Winter 2020

Read more
footer_ohe_logo

Leading intellectual authority on global health economics

Sign Up for the OHE News Bulletin

Newsletter SignupStart Sign Up

Research & Publications

News & Insights

Innovation Policy Prize

Education

Events

About Us

OHE Experts

Contact Us

Sign Up for the OHE News Bulletin

Newsletter SignupStart Sign Up

The Office of Health Economics (OHE) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (registered number 09848965) and its registered office is at 2nd Floor Goldings House, Hay’s Galleria, 2 Hay’s Lane, London, SE1 2HB.

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Cookies Policy

© 2023 Website Design

An error has occurred, please try again later.An error has occurred, please try again later.

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

 Twitter
 Facebook
 LinkedIn
 Copy
 Email
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!