HC Deb 19 February 1979 vol 963 cc50-1W
Mr. Richard Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting list time for each of the main specialties at the Oldham and District general hospital and Huddersfield Royal infirmary.

Mr. Moyle

I regret that information on waiting times for admission to hospital is not available in the form requested. Average waiting times are misleading as admissions are arranged according to the circumstances of individual cases and patients needing emergency treatment are admitted without delay. North-Western and Yorkshire RHAs produce their information on waiting times for admission to hospital on different basis and at different times.

At 31 January 1979, the number of patients awaiting admission to Oldham and district general hospital in each of the main specialties and the length of time they had been waiting were:

Specialty Under 3 months 3–12 months Over 1 year Total
General medicine 1 — — 1
Paediatrics 2 4 — 6
Geriatrics 1 1 — 2
General surgery 165 123 60 348
ENT 170 115 60 345
Traumatic and orthopaedic — — 2 2
Ophthalmology — 1 1 2
Gynaecology 219 199 223 641
Total 558 443 346 1,347

At the Huddersfield Royal infirmary the number of patients awaiting adimission

Urgent Cases Non-Urgent Cases
Specialty Total Waiting over one month Total Waiting over one year Total
General Medicine … Nil Nil Nil Nil —
General Surgery … 3 1 339 Nil 342
ENT … 58 42 907 447 965
Traumatic and orthopaedic … Nil Nil 352 17 352
Ophthalmology … Nil Nil 165 Nil 165
Gynaecology … 1 Nil 439 64 440
Urology … Nli Nil 142 Nil 142
Total 62 43 2,344 528 2,406

Mr. David Atkinson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people were waiting for hospital beds in the Dorset area on 1 January; and what were the numbers waiting at the same date in each of the past five years.

Mr. Moyle

The figures are:

31 December 1974 6,692
31 December 1975 7,702
31 December 1976 7,313
31 December 1977 6,933
31 December 1978 6,500

A comparable figure for 31 December 1973, which was prior to National Health Service reorganisation, is not readily available.