§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will indicate the average length of waiting time for treatment for kidney patients in England; if he will give his best estimate of patients who die whilst on the waiting list; if he will give the age distribution of such deaths; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John Patten[pursuant to his reply, 26 January 1984, c. 702]: The number of patients awaiting treatment by dial) sis is not recorded centrally. Provisional figures on the waiting time for a kidney transplant in England are as follows:
Average waiting time Days Patients transplanted during 1983: First graft 366 Second or subsequent graft 514 Patients waiting transplant on 31 December 1983: First graft 718 Second or subsequent graft 858 These waiting times should be reduced as the number of kidneys donated increases. A new donor campaign will start next month. The number of persons who had been notified to the United Kingdom transplant service as waiting for a transplant, and were recorded as having died before transplantation in 1983, was 107, compared with a total of 2,161 awaiting a transplant at the end of the year. The cause of deaths is not recorded by the service and will not have been related to the renal condition in every case. There are also a number of deaths each year among patients who do receive a transplant.
The age distribution of the 107 patients who died while on the waiting list was Age Under 11 1 11–20 2 21–30 10 31–40 14 41–50 22 51–60 32 61–70 9 Not recorded 17 These are provisional figures.