§ 22. Miss Quennellasked the Secretary of State for the Social Services what is the average delay in admission to those hospitals serving the Petersfield constituency for patients awaiting minor remedial operations and for those awaiting major surgery.
§ Mr. AlisonThe length of time a person may have to wait for admission to hospital for a minor or major surgical operation depends on a number of factors including the choice of consultant and hospital, the degree of urgency of the need for the operation, the specialty concerned and the length of the appropriate waiting list. Consequently waiting times vary considerably and a meaningful figure for average delay in admission is not available.
§ 27. Mr. William Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people in the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board area have been waiting for longer than 12 months for admission to hospital.
§ Mr. AlisonThe information is not available, but of 125,252 patients admitted from the waiting lists to hospitals in the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board area during 1972—the latest year for which such figures are available—8,840 had been on waiting lists for more than 12 months.
§ Mr. Edwin Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people in the Sheffield Regional 248W Hospital Board's area have been on the waiting list for admission to hospital for longer than 12 months ; and what were the comparable figures for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. AlisonThe totals for each of the years 1968–1973 are as follows:
(Latest available date) 30th September 1973 14,786 31st December 1972 13,836 31st December 1971 12,082 31st December 1970 13,791 31st December 1969 13,689 31st December 1968 11,936 These figures do not include patients awaiting admission to the United Sheffield Hospitals as comparable statistics for that group are not available.