§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for the Social Services what information is collected centrally on waiting lists for medical operations.
§ Mr. WhitneyInformation on in-patient waiting lists is collected by the Department twice a year, on 31 March and 30 September, by specialty and district health authority and annually on 31 December by specialty and hospital. A bound volume of the district waiting list returns is placed in the Library with copies of the national and regional summaries.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for the Social Services if he will list the number of patients who have had to wait over three months for each kind of surgery for each year from 1979.
§ Mr. WhitneyI am sorry I cannot give the hon. Member the information he seeks. The information is not available centrally in the form requested except at disproportionate cost but estimated mean and median waiting times for all medical procedures are given in "Hospital In-Patient Enquiry" volumes, of which there are copies in the Library.