ABSTRACT
Whilst commencing with a review of the central issues that are both germane to and prevalent in the literature about waiting for treatment in the NHS, this chapter has two chief concerns. First, to demonstrate whether patients registered with fund-holding GPs had shorter waiting times, relative to non fund-holders. Second, to establish whether any such benefits that existed for fund-holding patients can legitimately be attributed to the participation of their practices in the fund-holding scheme. Preliminary findings relating to these questions were presented in the British Medical Journal (see Dowling, 1997). In the light of correspondence and comments provoked by this paper (see Black, 1998), the analysis was refined and possible objections to the findings explored. Whilst a brief initial response to these comments was published elsewhere (see Dowling, 1998), it is the revised results that are reported in detail here (with further matters also considered in other chapters).
