Waiting time for elective care is defined as the time that elapses between firstly the physician’s decision to admit a patient for elective surgery following clinical assessment and secondly the date of hospital admission1The 2005 edition of the Fraser Institute Report on Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada indicates that wait times for plastic surgery are the second lengthiest of all specialties2The objective of our study was to study the relation between various types of patients admitted in the department of plastic and re-constructive surgery at Sher-i- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences,J&K and their respective waiting times.The study was conducted for a period of one year from 1st October 2013 to 30th September 2014.It was a prospective observational study carried out on the patients admitted in the ward of plastic and re-constructive surgery. The study was done based on the interviews from relevant informants, study of records .Out of the total of 2238 patients admitted 495 cases were that of RTA(road traffic accidents), 162 bear mauls, 135cleft palate, 117 cleft lip,99 tin cut injuries,90 PBC(Post burn contracture) hand,72 cases of …show more content…
Maximum cases of Basal cell carcinoma(BCC) , bear mauls, RTA, electric burn, tin cut, machine injuries had a wait time of less than 30 days while post burn contractures had to wait for more than a month for their treatment. Patients admitted as emergency cases like RTA,s, bear mauls, carcinoma breast, SCC face, dog-bites, glass cut injuries were admitted on priority basis with least delay. The cases like cleft palate, burn contractures, hypospadias had a longer wait time of more than 60 days like average wait time of CA breast was 7.64 days, that of fall from height was 1.98 days, RTA was 11.41 days, skin cancers (SCC) was 24.24 days while less urgent cases like cleft lip had a mean wait time of 76.04 days, that of burn contractures was 40.53 days and that in hypospadias was 60.82