Routine reporting exposed a continuing increase in the time spinal patients were waiting, and elective spinal patients were waiting too long for a decision to be made on their treatment plan. There were many contributing factors such as increased appointments, diagnostic tests and a complicated pathway
A discrete event simulation of the spinal pathway was developed, which looked at the referral routes in and wait times between appointments. The model demonstrated some variation across the number of patients in the queues per consultant for further investigation.