Inpatient waiting: a discussion and policy proposal.

Waiting lists for inpatient treatment are a widely publicised feature of the National Health Service. They provide ammunition for critics of publically provided medical care, while for advocates of public sector provision they seem, at best, a matter of discomfort and disquiet. An impression has been given that the problem is due to a lack of resources and the solution is an increase in expenditure on NHS hospital facilities. But do waiting lists really represent a problem? Is there an optimal waiting list and can this be different from zero ? We hope, firstly, to outline a set of criteria that might be considered appropriate in discussing waiting lists. If the response to the criteria should be that current waiting lists are too long our second objective is to offer a policy proposal that might enable waiting lists of a desired length to be achieve<' in