§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how his Department arrived at its estimate of the median interval between a patient being placed on a hip replacement waiting list and the date of admission to a National Health Service hospital for a total hip replacement; and when the equivalent figure for 1984 will be available.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe estimated median interval between the date a patient was placed on the waiting list and the date of admission to a National Health Service non-psychiatric hospital is based on the sample information held centrally. The median value is the waiting time of the middle case of a group of patients when ranked in order of waiting time. Equivalent 1984 information is expected to be available in May this year.