§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his most up-to-date figure for the numbers of patients on Health Service waiting lists; and how this compares with the numbers for one, two, three and five years previously.
§ Mr. John PattenThe requested information in given in the table. About half of all admissions to hospital are immediate and many of those on waiting lists already have a planned date of admission. In addition, figures on waiting lists are believed to include a significant proportion of duplicated entries and patients who no longer require treatment. The amount of overstatement cannot be readily estimated but is thought to exceed 10 per cent, nationally and could be considerably more.
Number of cases on inpatient waiting lists in NHS hospitals in England on 31 March Year Number *1979 752,422 1981 628,333 1982 622,480 *1983 726,186 1984 692,945 * Figures for these years were affected by industrial action in the health service