Many of us will need to undergo surgery at some point in our lives for one ailment or another. While this might not be a pleasant experience for the patient, surgery can have a life-changing impact for people with a range of conditions, allowing them to walk, see properly, and experience the world without limitations.
However, many health systems across the world struggle to keep up with the demand for surgery, which has led to long waiting lists building up for certain procedures. This is an issue for the patient regardless of whether they need eye surgery for cataracts or a knee replacement to get them moving. The patients stuck on waiting lists could be in pain, immobilised or experiencing reduced independence due to their health problem that needs correcting, which in some cases can get worse the longer left untreated.
It is also an unfortunate fact that there are severe inequalities in access to surgery in different parts of the world, meaning that you could be waiting weeks or even months longer for surgery just because of the country you live in.
With this in mind, we wanted to find out which countries have the best and worst waiting times for a range of surgeries, to showcase the best performing health systems in this area and to shine a light on the disparities found between nations.
In this section, we will look at the waiting times for eye care, specifically cataract surgery. Cataracts are when the lens in your eye develops cloudy patches which can obscure your vision and eventually lead to blindness.
If you have cataracts you may need surgery to fix the problem and restore your eyesight to the way it should be. If your cataracts are not severe, a stronger prescription for your glasses or contact lenses could be an effective treatment, though as cataracts do get worse with time you may eventually need surgery regardless. So, how long are the waiting times for cataract surgery?
Here we can see the proportion of patients that have to wait three months or longer for cataract surgery in a range of different countries.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
In Norway, a huge 64.8% of patients awaiting cataract surgery have to wait at least three months for their operations, the largest proportion of any country in our study.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
Estonia has the second-highest proportion of cataract patients waiting three months or longer for surgery at 62.8%.
4 year change in waiting times
Finland has the third-highest percentage of patients waiting three months or more for cataract surgery at 62.7%.
Waiting times for cataract surgery in the UK did not change from 2015 to 2019, with a median wait time of 59 days in both years. However, which countries have managed to improve their wait times the most in the same timeframe?
4 year change in waiting times
Poland has improved waiting times for cataract surgery the most in four years, with a reduction of 83.33%. This equates to a median wait time of 69 days in 2019 compared to a 414 day wait time recorded in 2015.
4 year change in waiting times
Hungary has the second most improved waiting time for cataract operations, dropping by 30.56% from 43 days in 2015 to 30 days in 2019.
4 year change in waiting times
Spain’s waiting times for cataract surgery dropped by 7.88% in the four years from 2015 to 2019, from 83 days to 76.
Another surgery we focused on was knee replacement surgery, which is a common procedure done to replace all or part of the component bones within the knee if they have become weakened. This is particularly common in older people who suffer from osteoarthritis.
Here we can see which countries have the highest percentage of patients waiting in excess of three months for their knee replacement surgery.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
The country where the largest proportion of patients have to wait longer than three months for knee replacement surgery is Chile, where this is the case in a huge 94% of cases.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
Estonia comes second, with a total of 90.30% of patients waiting over three months for knee replacement surgery.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
Portugal has the third-highest proportion of patients waiting in excess of three months for their knee replacement surgery.
These are the countries where waiting times for knee replacement surgery have improved the most in recent years. By tracking the change in waiting times between 2015 and 2019, we are able to measure the rate at which waiting times have been changing in each country.
4 year change in waiting times
Poland has seen the greatest improvement in waiting times for knee replacement surgery in recent years, with the number of days patients wait on average reducing by 50.70% from 357 to 176. While this is still a long waiting time, the huge reduction makes it the most improved in our study.
4 year change in waiting times
Finland has experienced the second-best change in waiting times over the past few years, seeing the length of waits for knee replacement surgery shrinking by 27.27% from 110 days to 80.
4 year change in waiting times
Third place goes to Hungary, which has seen waiting times for knee replacement surgery drop by 26.32% from 123.5 days in 2015 to 91 days in 2019.
The last surgery that we will pay special attention to is hip replacement surgery. Hip replacement surgery is another common procedure that is usually used to treat older patients who suffer from various forms of arthritis, though it can also be used to treat some hip fractures and bone tumours.
Here we can see the proportion of hip replacement patients in each country who have to wait in excess of three months for their surgery.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
Chile has the highest rate of hip replacement patients who have to wait more than three months for surgery at a huge 89%!
Patients waiting 3 months or more
In Estonia, as many as 77.4% of patients have to wait more than three months for their hip replacement surgery, the second-highest proportion in our study.
Patients waiting 3 months or more
Norway has the third-highest proportion of patients waiting longer than three months for hip replacement surgery at 70.7%.
Here we can also see how some countries’ waiting times for hip replacement surgery have changed over the years. Those where waiting times have shrunk the most are ranked highest, while those where waiting times have grown are ranked lowest.
4 year change in waiting times
Poland has seen the greatest improvement in waiting times for knee replacement surgery in recent years, with the number of days patients wait on average reducing by 50.70% from 357 to 176. While this is still a long waiting time, the huge reduction makes it the most improved in our study.
4 year change in waiting times
Hungary has the second-best change in waiting times for hip replacement surgery between 2015 and 2019, with the average number of days patients need to wait dropping by 45.64% from 69.9 days to just 38.
4 year change in waiting times
Finland came third with an improvement in waiting times for hip replacement surgery of 30.48%, representing a drop from 93.5 days to 65.
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Here we can see the median waiting time that patients experience for a range of different surgeries in countries from across the world. By taking an average across these wait times, we can rank the countries by their overall performance across procedures.
Average wait time for surgery
Hungary has the best overall wait times for surgery, with patients in the country waiting 23 days on average for their procedure.
Average wait time for surgery
Italy is the second-fastest country for getting surgery, with patients waiting an average of 27 days to have their operations.
Average wait time for surgery
Denmark takes third place for surgery waiting times, with patients waiting an average of 31 days before being operated on.
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We’ve also taken a look at the health spending landscape across a wide selection of 50 countries to identify those which spend the most and least on their citizens’ health.
Here we highlight those countries with the highest healthcare spending per person. All figures are given in USD for easy comparison between countries.
Expenditure per Capita
The United States has the highest spending on healthcare per capita in our study, with $10,624 being spent per person. The United States is known for its expensive private healthcare system, which is in keeping with the country’s first-place finish seen here.
Expenditure per Capita
Switzerland has the second-highest level of healthcare spending per person at $9,871. Healthcare in Switzerland has an excellent reputation which, coupled with the high prices found in most parts of Swiss life, could go some way to explaining this high expenditure.
Expenditure per Capita
Norway takes third place, with healthcare expenditure per capita of $8,239. Norway’s universal healthcare system regularly rates very highly on international comparisons, justifying this relatively high level of spending.
These are the countries with the lowest levels of healthcare expenditure per capita in our study.
Expenditure per Capita
With healthcare expenditure per capita of just $73 in the country, India has the lowest levels of healthcare spending. India has one of the largest populations in the world, yet is also relatively poor when compared to some of the world’s other major economies.
Expenditure per Capita
In second place is Indonesia, where spending on healthcare is only $12 per person.
Expenditure per Capita
Turkey has the third-lowest level of healthcare expenditure per capita in our study, standing at $390.
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We’ve also tracked which countries have seen the biggest changes in their healthcare spending since 2010. All figures are given in USD.
Here we can see the ten countries where healthcare spending has increased the most since 2010.
Change in spending since 2010
China has seen the biggest increase in healthcare spending per capita since 2010, with expenditure growing by 168.7% to $501 per person.
Change in spending since 2010
Saudi Arabia has had the second-largest growth in healthcare spending, with levels rising by 11.3% to $1,485 in 2018.
Change in spending since 2010
Singapore has seen the third-largest percent increase in healthcare expenditure per head. Here, spending levels have risen by 88.6% from $1,496.78 in 2010 to $2,824 in 2018.
Lastly, we take a look at the countries in which healthcare spending per capita has actually dropped between 2010 and 2018.
Change in spending since 2010
The country where healthcare spending has shrunk the most is Greece, which in 2018 saw a reduction in expenditure of 38.9% compared to 2010 levels.
Change in spending since 2010
Turkey saw the second-largest reduction in healthcare spending of 27.7%, bringing per capita spending down from $539 to $390.
Change in spending since 2010
The third-largest reduction in healthcare expenditure per capita was in Luxembourg, where levels fell from $7,460 in 2010 to $6,227 in 2018.
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We wanted to find out which countries are the best and worst for surgery waiting times, and which spend the most and least on healthcare per person. To do this, we first used OECD data to look at the waiting times for various surgeries in a selection of countries.
We calculated the average median waiting time in days from across these surgeries so as to rank them by their overall waiting time record. We focused on surgery waiting times for cataracts, knee replacements and hip replacements, finding which countries had the shortest median waiting time and the largest proportion of patients waiting over 30 days for each. This gave us a good idea of how waiting times differ not only from country to country but also from surgery to surgery.
We also looked at World Bank data for healthcare expenditure per head in 50 different countries including the G20, European Union, OECD, and several other major economies. We ranked the countries by their healthcare expenditure per capita, highlighting the lowest and highest spenders, while also calculating the change in each country’s per capita spending since 2010. This gave us a better idea of which countries are better equipped to tackle healthcare issues such as waiting times for surgery.
