How data are changing the way clinicians prioritise patients and tackle waiting lists

Consider two patients with back pain waiting for a therapeutic lumbar injection, says Daniel Hayes, director of performance and informatics at Coventry and Warwick NHS Trust.1 The first has been waiting 36 weeks for treatment and would traditionally be booked in for the procedure before the second, who has been waiting 27 weeks. Consider now that the first patient is in their 30s and is normally fit and well, whereas the second is in their 60s, lives in a deprived area, and has had three emergency attendances related to pain management in the past year. With this additional information, priority might change, enabling the second patient to be booked in first because they would benefit more from having the procedure earlier—and this would avoid exacerbating existing health inequalities.There are many factors other than waiting time and clinical priority that affect health and should be used to prioritise care, says Hayes….
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