§ Ms PrimaroloTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the estimated cost of reducing waiting lists to under two years; and what estimates she has made of the costs of reducing the waiting lists further.
§ Dr. MawhinneyBetween 1987–88 and 1993–94, the Government provided £252 million to fund the waiting time initiative. One of the many targets of the initiative was to reduce to less than two years the maximum length of time a patient would wait for hospital treatment. New initiatives to reduce hospital waiting times are constantly being considered.