An outline of formal logic and its applications in medicine--I.

The discrepancy between the length of the waiting list and eventual admissions from the waiting list was investigated by comparing data from two different sources ofroutine statistics in the Oxford region. It was estimated that about 28% ofthe waiting list comprised patients who were not eventually admitted to hospital within the region. Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF A LEE, mBs, FFRsucs, World Health Organisation training fellow M J GOLDACRE, ms, FFCM, director Oxford Regional Health Authority, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF B DON, Bsc, DPHIL, regional statistician Correspondence to: Dr Goldacre. Introduction Several studies have indicated that routine returns on the number of patients on waiting lists overestimate the numbers of patients who will eventually be admitted to hospital.'4 The Department of Health and Social Security has asked health authorities to review and validate their inpatient waiting lists and has suggested that at least one tenth of all patients on waiting lists will not eventually require admission.5 We investigated the discrepancy between the length of the waiting list and the number of eventual admissions from the waiting list by comparing the data from two different sources of routine statistics.