§ Mr. Rees-Davies asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting time for inpatient orthopaedic treatment in hospitals, particularly for hip surgery in (a) the South-East Thames regional health authority and (b) the Canterbury and Thanet district health authority.
§ Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg: The most recent information available for the South-East Thames regional health authority, based on a 10 per cent. sample, is for 1978, when the mean waiting times for patients resident in the region admitted from waiting lists were 34.7 weeks for all arthroplasty—joint replacement—operations and 23 weeks for all orthopaedic operations. Waiting times for individual operations, such as hip replacements, are not readily available. The information requested for the Canterbury and Thanet health district is not available centrally and my hon. Friend may like to seek it direct from the Kent area health authority.