Scotland Launches Online Waiting List Database

An online database of hospital waiting lists intended to help cut NHS waiting times and provide patients with greater choice has been launched by Scottish health minister Malcolm Chisholm.

The new database, called The National Waiting Times Database, will provide comparative information on waiting times for routine outpatient appointments across Scotland. The service, which will initially be made available to GPs, will be launched to the public in April.

The database will contain about 3,600 individual clinics, covering about 80% of all outpatient consultations in Scotland. It will cover eight major specialities: general medicine, general surgery, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat, urology, gynaecology, dermatology and orthopaedics.

The introduction of the new online database comes as part of a "root and branch" review of outpatient services and the way they are organised and delivered. The ambitious shake-up is to be the first task of Scotland’s new Centre for Change and Innovation

The Scottish Executive, which has responsibility for running NHS Scotland, has set the target of ensuring that no patient waits more than six months for a new outpatient appointment by 2006.

Mr Chisholm last month signalled his intention to "systematically target" this sector of the health service last month, when official figures indicated that 11.6% of Scots awaiting outpatient treatment had not been seen after 26 weeks.

Speaking just after Christmas, Mr Chisholm said: "This is about delivering new and innovative ways of working with a fundamental redesign of our outpatient service. The result will be a service which is responsive to patients and where long waits are driven down and kept down.

He added: "This is an ambitious programme and I am confident it will fundamentally change outpatient services in Scotland."

The challenge, he concluded, was to combine new and innovative ways of working with a fundamental redesign of outpatient services.