§ 6. Mr. Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge)When he expects hospital waiting lists in Wales to start falling; and when he expects them to fall to the level of 1 May 1997. [45904]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Win Griffiths)Wales's share of the additional money for the NHS announced in the Budget is £25 million. A total of £20 million of that money will be used to target the growth in in-patient and day-case waiting lists and enable the service to reduce lists to below the level at which they stood when the Government took office, by the end of this financial year. That supports the Government's commitment to reduce waiting lists over the lifetime of this Parliament by 100,000.
§ Mr. HammondThat would be fine if the Government's early pledge had been only to allow waiting lists to continue to rise for two years. However, I accept what the Minister tells us, and I am grateful for it. If he fails to deliver on the pledge to reduce waiting lists to the May 1997 level by the end of April 1999, who will be responsible? Will he follow the lead of his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and blame health service managers, or will he accept responsibility and resign?
§ Mr. GriffithsI am confident that the plans that health authorities in Wales have drawn up, and the additional support that we will get from experts in the health service, including Professor Brian Edwards, will enable us to achieve our targets, and that, unlike the previous Conservative Government£the waiting lists for in-patient day cases in Wales rose by 8 per cent. in their last two years£we will have levelled off and achieved our target by the end of this financial year.
§ Mr. Barry Jones (Alyn and Deeside)Will my hon. Friend pledge to tackle urgently the serious waiting list problem for cataract operations in north Wales, 1039 particularly at the district hospital in Wrexham? Does he agree that a pensioner waiting for a cataract operation suffers a serious blight on his or her life? May I also thank my hon. Friend for receiving my deputation from the Royal National Institute for the Blind so courteously recently?
§ Mr. GriffithsYes, I can assure my hon. Friend that I am well aware of the long waiting list for cataract operations at the Wrexham Maelor hospital and am anticipating that the North Wales health authority will produce proposals to reduce it. It is unacceptable that old people should have to wait for operations that can be so important for the retention or regaining of their eyesight.