HC Deb 15 July 1998 vol 316 c219W
Mr. Hammond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his oral answer of 30 June 1998,Official Report, columns 143–45, on hospital waiting lists, if he will publish the interim figures received by his Department which indicated that NHS waiting lists in England were falling. [49109]

Mr. Milburn

Early indications suggest that waiting lists began to come down in June. Validated figures will be published in due course.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of trends in hospital waiting lists between the first and second quarters of 1998; and if he will make a statement. [50476]

Mr. Milburn

As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said on 30 June 1998,Official Report, columns 143–44, early indications from the National Health Service Executive show that waiting lists stopped rising in May and have been coming down in June. We expect this downward trend to continue so that, by next April, the NHS will have delivered a record reduction in waiting lists to below the 1.16 million inherited from the previous administration.