§ 25. Mr. Dobsonasked the Minister of Health if he will state the number of patients awaiting admission to Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, divided into the categories of treatment required.
§ Mr. LoughlinAs the Answer contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. DobsonI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. The list is now abnormally large. It has doubled in less than four years. Would he agree that there is a need to increase the number of medical staff and nurses available at the hospital and bring forward the current building programme to meet the hospital's need?
§ Mr. LoughlinMy hon. Friend should be careful about statistics. He knows that Frenchay is a first-class plastic surgery unit. If the plastic surgery is excluded, there has been no increase in the waiting list in the past year. The main reason for the high number of patients awaiting plastic surgery is that a theatre for this specialty was closed in 1965 for major building work and this threw a burden on to the waiting list.
§ Following are the figures:
| Specialty | Number of patients on the waiting list at 30th September, 1966 |
| General medicine | 9 |
| Chronic sick | 10 |
| General surgery | 473 |
| Tonsils and adenoids | 205 |
| Other ear, nose and throat | 73 |
| Plastic surgery | 2,937 |
| Thoracic surgery | 100 |
| Neurosurgery | 98 |
| Gynaecology | 710 |
| Gastro enterology | 15 |
| Total | 4,630 |