Delay in administration of medical care

In the UK, in 1986, over 661,000 people were on waiting list for hospital treatment. Almost 40,000 people had been waiting for over a year for non-urgent orthopaedic operations and 10,000 had been waiting for over a month for urgent orthopaedic operations including hip replacements. In some districts 95% of non-urgent patients must wait over a year for treatment. Several officials believe that some people on waiting lists no longer need treatment because they have moved or have died. A 1993 report found a total of 1,030,763 people on UK waiting lists for hospital treatment, the country's record high and a 1.3% increase over the previous 6 months. In 1994 it was reported that patients were waiting an average of 5.5 hours for a bed in a hospital casualty department outside London.