HC Deb 03 June 1980 vol 985 c1235
10. Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons are on the waiting list requiring surgical treatment at each of the area health authorities in the South Yorkshire district; and what were the comparable figures for the previous three years.

The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Sir George Young)

I shall circulate the information requested in the Official Report. The latest centrally available routine return shows that on 30 September 1979 about 20,000 people were waiting for admission to surgical departments of hospitals in South Yorkshire.

Mr. Wainwright

Are the figures improving? Secondly, will the right hon. Gentleman take into account the fact that many people on these waiting lists are suffering pain and inconvenience while waiting to enter hospital? When will the Government do something to ensure that patients are taken off the lists in rotation, instead of allowing some doctors, as some are doing now, to recommend to patients that they see a consultant and say that for a sum of between £700 and £1,000 they can have an immediate operation for arthritic hips?

Sir G. Young

The answer to the first part of the hon. Gentleman's question is

NUMBER OF PEOPLE AWAITING IN-PATIENT ADMISSION IN SURGICAL SPECIALTIES ON 30 SEPTEMBER
Area Health Authority 1976 1977 1978 1979*
Barnsley … … … 2,181 2,594 3,077 3,966
Doncaster … … … 3,497 3,659 4,412 4,689
Rotherham … … … 2,510 2,013 2,600 2,962
Sheffield … … … 7,748 7,845 8,350 8,887
* Provisional figures.