The Covid pandemic and nurses’ strike in 2021 left a massive backlog of scheduled operations, including artificial knees and hips, hernias and gallstones. Therefore, the waiting times in the following years were very long. After several political grants, and not least, the tremendous efforts of healthcare professionals, waiting times have now been almost halved.

“When you are waiting for an operation, everyday life is put on hold. And even if it’s not life-threatening, waiting for a hip replacement can be highly debilitating. This is not good for the citizens, so I am delighted that we have succeeded in reducing waiting times considerably,” says Christoffer Buster Reinhardt (Conservative People’s Party), Chairman of the Health Committee at the Capital Region of Denmark.

He also emphasises that waiting times for scheduled operations should be reduced even further in the coming years. ​

“Politicians have continuously allocated funds to increase activity both in hospitals and in specialised medical practices. And perhaps most importantly, the staff in the operating theatres have been working extremely hard. This is what we are now seeing as a result. However, we will continue to work to reduce waiting times even more,” he says.

Waiting times for operations refer to scheduled operations and do not include emergency operations or those for critical illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease.