HC Deb 23 March 1978 vol 946 cc704-5W
Mr. George

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the waiting period (a) to visit a specialist and (b) to have an operation of non-clinical necessity in Walsall hospitals; if he will give the waiting periods for each of the medical specialisms; and how these figures compare with the West Midlands Region and England and Wales.

Mr. Moyle

Following are the out patient waiting times in weeks at 30th November 1977:

General Surgery 43–62*
Medicine 4–13*
Orthopaedic 39–43*
Ophthalmology 9–21*
Gynaecology 13–35*
ENT 43–49*
Chest Diseases 2–7*
Dental Surgery 4–6*
Ante-natal 4–7*
Paediatrics 5–6*
Dermatology 5
Orthodontics 33
Child Psychiatry 42
* Varies between consultants.

At present patients needing in-patient treatment for general medical conditions are being admitted without delay. The waiting time for non-urgent surgical admissions varies between 12 and 60 months according to the kind of operation required. Information from which to make comparisons with the rest of the West Midlands and England and Wales is not readily available.

Mr. Pavitt

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the additional number of patients added to hospital waiting lists as a result of doctors' industrial action in 1976–77.

Mr. Ennals

There have been two main periods of industrial action by hospital medical staff in recent years: by consultants during the period December 1974 to April 1975 and by junior hospital doctors between October and December 1975. At that time there was a substantial increase in the number of patients awaiting admission to hospital—from 517,000 in December 1974 to 581,000 in December 1975, some 12½ per cent. overall. Numbers have remained at about that level since then.