“…Case study reports of the costs of achieving lower waiting times suggests that many of the changes are nearly costless or may even reduce costs (by eliminating unnecessary processes such as, in the case of cataracts, referral from an optometrist to the GP, for example). 24,25 Other changes, such as a switch from inpatient to day-case surgery -and increasingly in some cases from day cases to outpatients -will also save costs. In the case of cataract surgery, costs per case have been reduced by about one-quarter as a result of the shift away from inpatient treatment which is now virtually complete.…”