HC Deb 22 July 1980 vol 989 cc203-4W
Mr. John Browne

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will arrange for the recently published Government statistics of infant mortality in home confinements to be broken down further and republished to show those home births that were planned and those that arose out of emergency, giving reasons for his decisions.

Sir George Young

The information requested is not available from birth departments, respectively; and how long a patient would have to wait for an operation in each of those areas, respectively.

Sir George Young

Information is not available in precisely the form requested. The following table shows the numbers of people waiting in-patient admission in the four specialties listed to NHS hospitals in England and Wales at 30 September 1979. Average waiting times of patients admitted to hospital beds in these specialties and for the two conditions listed are also shown, although 1977 figures are the latest available centrally:

data collected routinely. The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is currently considering the possibility of obtaining these data by a special inquiry.