§ Lord Vivianasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many personnel in each armed service have been waiting for medical consultations; and how many have been waiting for medical operations, showing the number of months they have been waiting. [HL3099]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)Service patients are mainly treated in Defence Secondary Care Agency (DSCA) administered Ministry of Defence hospital units (MDHUs) situated in NHS trusts, in other NHS hospitals as NHS patients, or in DSCA directly managed units (DMUs) in the United Kingdom and overseas. Secondary care in Northern Ireland is administered by the Army. The British Forces Germany Health Service provides secondary care for service personnel in Germany, where there are generally no waiting lists.
The MoD only maintains central records on the overall number of Armed Forces patients awaiting a first out-patient appointment or in-patient treatment (including daycase surgery) at MDHUs. MDHU waiting list information as at 30 September 2001, the last date for which information is available, is provided in the following tables. This excludes outpatient information in respect of MDHU Portsmouth due to validation of patient information at that time.
Outpatients Waiting time 0–13 weeks 13+ weeks Total Waiting Number of Service patients waiting1 1,734 356 2,090 1Number of patients waiting at four MDHUs (Peterborough, Frimley Park, Derriford and Northallerton).
Inpatients Waiting time 0–3 months 3–6 months 6+ months Total Waiting Number of Service patients waiting1 1,387 549 509 2,448 1 Number of patients waiting at all five MDHUs (Portsmouth, Peterborough, Frimley Park, Derriford and Northallerton).