Objective: To examine and compare the factors causing long waiting lists for non-urgent surgery in public (Ministry of Health, military, and teaching) and private hospitals in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and to examine the relationship between the personal characteristics of the respondents (surgeons) and the surgery-delay experience.
Material and methods: The instrument used in this study was a self-administered questionnaire. Out of 500 distributed questionnaires 320 valid responses were returned. Data were collected from 14 public and private hospitals in Riyadh City. Frequencies and percentages; Mann-Whitney; Kruskall-Wallis one way ANOVA; Chi-square; Phi; and Cramers' V tests were used in the statistical analysis..
Results: Results show that seven factors were significantly important in causing long waiting lists. A significant difference with regard to the seriousness of this problem was found between the two types of hospitals.
Conclusion: This study shows that there is a significant difference in the seriousness of the problem between private and various types of public hospitals. Similar studies in different parts of the country are therefore recommended.
Keywords: MOH; Non-urgent surgery; and private; and teaching hospitals; military; waiting lists.