§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the population level required to maintain an acute hospital in the Province as viable. [187804]
1472W
Outpatient commissioner waiting list information for the primary care trusts (PCT) and health authority (HA) covering the Warrington area all specialties General practitioner written referrals not yet seen, who have been waiting (weeks) Quarter ending March Code Name 13 to <26 26 plus 1998 QCV North Cheshire HA 1,176 217 1999 QCV North Cheshire HA 1.871 339 2000 QCV North Cheshire HA 1,267 538 2001 QCV North Cheshire HA 789 379 2002 QCV North Cheshire HA 592 19
General practitioner written referrals not yet seen, who have been waiting (weeks) Quarter ending March Code Name 13 to <17 17 to <21 21 to <26 26 plus 2003 5J2 Warrington PCT 232 91 0 0 2004 5J2 Warrington PCT 80 0 0 0 Note: Data for North Cheshire HA and Warrington PCT is not directly comparable. PCTs only came into existence in April 2002. Source: Department of Health QM08R.
§ Angela Smith"Developing Better Services" concluded that a minimum population of between 100,000 and 150,000 is needed to provide the volume of patients necessary to sustain a modern acute hospital and to support advances in treatment, medical technology and specialist skills.
The establishment of managed clinical networks is essential to the delivery of safe, effective and sustainable services at smaller acute hospitals. A number of 1473W networks are already in place in Northern Ireland; there are plans for existing networks to be further developed and others introduced as part of the implementation of "Developing Better Services".