A Hospital Throughput Model in the Context of Long Waiting Lists

Abstract

In a public health system, one of the problems is the size of the waiting list for admission to hospital. This research involves establishing a method of analysing the general surgery waiting list problem at hospital and district level. While there are many aspects to such a study, this paper concentrates on a linear programming model to plan the aggregate throughput of the general surgical department. Preliminary results from applying the techniques to actual health districts in the United Kingdom are reported.

^*Visiting Research Fellow from the University of Caterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

^†Now at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, Australia.

^*Visiting Research Fellow from the University of Caterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

^†Now at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, Australia.