§ Mr. Aitkenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting list time for hip 489W replacement operations in the Canterbury and Thanet health district; how this compares with the national average; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Aitkenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting list time for orthopaedic operations in the Canterbury and Thanet health district; how this compares with the national average; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. VaughanThe information requested for the Canterbury and Thanet health district is not available centrally, and my hon. Friend may like to seek it direct from the Kent area health authority. The most recent information available for England and Wales, based on a 10 per cent. sample, is for 1978 when the mean waiting times for patients admitted from waiting lists were 34 weeks for all arthroplasty—joint replacement— operations and 23 weeks for all orthopaedic operations. Waiting times for individual operations such as hip replacements are not readily available. In my reply to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. Lyell) on 12 March—[Vol. 1000 c.422–3]—I welcomed the approach as for tackling waiting lists locally put forward in the report of the working party chaired by Professor Duthie.