The natural history of waiting lists--some wider explanations for an unnecessary problem.

The examination of waiting list statistics suggests that long waiting times have at most a tenuous relationship with any lack of NHS resources. Long waiting times offer strong evidence that NHS resources are not allocated rationally in that the conditions whose relative neglect is expressed in waiting lists are those conditions where clear benefits are likely to follow comparatively cheap treatments. This article offers two wider explanations for the fact that this seemingly irrational picture has continued largely unchanged since the inception of the NHS, and is still effectively tolerated. The first concerns public responses to the waiting list conditions, and the second concerns professional priorities. 'He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts--for support rather than illumination.' Andrew Lang.