Dr. Millerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many referrals to full-time National Health Service and part-time National Health Service otolaryngologists, respectively, were made in each of the last three years what was the average waiting time for an appointment in each of these years; and what was the average cost of an examination and report by part-time consultants.
§ Mr. MoyleI regret that the information my hon. Friend seeks is not available. Centrally-held statistics do not dis532W tinguish between referrals to full-time and part-time consultants; nor do they record the waiting times for out-patient appointments. It may, however, be of interest to my hon. Friend to know that the number of new out-patients seen in the ear, nose and throat speciality were 616,217 in 1974, 491,571 in 1975 and 568,760 in 1976.