§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Macclesfield,Official Report, 5th December, column 1215, if he will give information as to how long those on the
MACCLESFIELD HEALTH DISTRICT—30TH SEPTEMBER 1978 Numbers of patients waiting Specialty Hospital Less than 1 month 1–6 months 6 months to 1 year 1–2 years 2 years and over Total General Surgery Infirmary 70 235 169 233 206 913 Congleton 12 71 33 11 4 131 Total 82 306 202 244 210 1,044 Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary 17 55 60 46 41 219 Alderley Edge 1 6 — — 7 Total 18 61 60 46 41 226 Trauma and Orthopaedic Infirmary 25 73 94 104 47 343 Congleton 2 45 29 25 2 103 Total 27 118 123 129 49 446 Ophthalmology Infirmary — — 1 5 8 14 Dental Infirmary 15 43 13 16 35 122 Gynaecology West Park 57 171 73 60 54 415 Congleton 6 37 21 70 9 143 Alderley Edge 13 58 16 6 — 93 Total 76 266 110 136 63 651 Grand Total 218 794 509 576 406 2,503 It is not possible to estimate how much longer these patients will have to wait as this will depend on the assessment by the surgeons concerned of the urgency of each case and the effect of the action taken by the health authorities to tackle the problem.