HUS year 2023: Access to treatment and waiting times
Access to specialist medical care remained difficult. This was due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the entire healthcare chain and the reduced availability of personnel. Challenges in access to treatment are a persistent national issue.
Reducing the care backlog generated by the coronavirus epidemic and by personnel availability issues remained a challenge in 2023. Personnel availability improved towards the end of the year, however, and we were able to reverse the negative trend in waiting times in several specialties, but the waiting lists for non-urgent care remain regrettably long in certain other specialties.
Achievement of care needs assessment
At the end of 2023, there were 32,957 persons waiting for a care needs assessment; 29% of them had been waiting for more than three months. Analyzed by specialty, there were particularly many such patients in surgery and eye diseases. Under the Health Care Act, a care needs assessment for a patient must be performed within three months of the hospital receiving the patient’s referral.
Waiting times for surgical and other procedures
The number of patients waiting for surgical procedures, other procedures or ambulatory surgery remained high in 2023. The total number of patients waiting for surgical procedures, other procedures or ambulatory surgery as at the end of the year under review was 22,915, of whom 6,059 (26.4%) had been waiting for more than six months. This total number of patients has decreased by about 600.
The average waiting time for non-urgent surgical procedures or inpatient care was 107 days, and the average waiting time for ambulatory surgery was 66 days.