This paper summarises recent international data on rates of five surgical procedures (i.e. caesarean, hysterectomy, prostatectomy, hip replacement and appendectomy) across OECD countries. It examines trends over time and compares age- and sex-specific rates for a recent year, for a sub-set of...

Waiting times for elective (non-emergency) treatments are a key health policy concern in several OECD countries. This study describes common measures on waiting times across OECD countries from administrative data. It focuses on common elective procedures, like hip and knee replacement, and...

The economic crisis that started in 2008 has had a profound impact on the lives of citizens. Millions of people lost their job, saw their life-savings disappear and experienced prolonged financial hardship. The economic crisis has also led a number of OECD governments to introduce austerity...

Health services account for a large and increasing share of production and expenditure in OECD and Eurostat countries but there are also noticeable differences between countries in expenditure per capita. Whether such differences are due to more services being consumed or whether they reflect...

Health workforce planning aims to achieve a proper balance between the supply and demand for different categories of health workers, in both the short and longer-term. Workforce planning in the health sector is particularly important, given the time and cost involved in training new doctors and...

Most OECD countries have endorsed as major policy objectives the reduction of inequalities in health status and the principle of adequate or equal access to health care based on need. These policy objectives require an evidence-based approach to measure progress. This paper assesses the...

This paper examines health workforce and migration policies in New Zealand, with a special focus on the international recruitment of doctors and nurses. 2. The health workforce in New Zealand, as in all OECD countries, plays a central role in the health system. Nonetheless, maybe more than for...

This working paper offers an overview of the LTC workforce and reviews country responses to a growing demand for LTC workers. In the context of ageing societies, the importance of long-term care is growing in all OECD countries. In 2005, long-term care expenditure accounted for slightly over 1%...

<OL><LI>The Ageing-Related Diseases study compares treatment trends and health outcomes on a disease-by-disease basis. Most of the day-to-day decisions that determine health care system performance are made in treating specific diseases. Therefore, the ARD’s bottom-up approach to comparing health care...</li></ol>

The Ageing-Related Diseases study compares health care systems by examining treatment trends and health outcomes on a disease-by-disease basis. Most of the day-to-day decisions that determine health care system performance are made in treating specific diseases. Therefore, the ARD’s bottom-up...