§ Sir David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the number of hip replacement operations which have taken 533W place in England for each of the last 10 years; what is the latest estimate of the average waiting time between diagnosis and operation; and what is the average cost to the National Health Service of such operations.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe available information for the 10 years up to 1984, the latest year for which information is held centrally, is given in the table.
Estimated number of operations for total hip replacement or other arthroplasty of hip, NHS hospitals in England Year Estimated number 1975 22,350 1976 25,400 1977 27,430 1978 28,090 1979 30,730 1980 33,420 1981 34,780 1982 33,730 1983 37,320 1984 37,970 The estimated median interval between the date a patient was placed on the waiting list and the date of admission to hospital for such operations in England in 1984 was 24 weeks.
Table 1 Waiting list: Ranking of District Health Authorities by percentage decrease of total waiting list cases between September 1984 and 1985 District health authority 1984 1985 Percentage change Rank* SCUNTHORPE 4,654 2,962 -57.1 1 Newham 1,560 999 -56.2 2 Macclesfield 1,767 1,152 -53.4 3 Darlington 2,073 1,360 -52.4 4 Grimsby 1,783 1,204 -48.1 5 Tunbridge Wells 7,071 4,859 -45.5 6 Salisbury 5,903 4,261 -38.5 7 Rugby 589 432 -36.3 8 Norwich 10,677 7,926 -34.7 9 South Sefton 5,150 3,850 -33.8 10 Bromsgrove and Redditch 2,647 1,991 -32.9 11 North West Durham 847 643 -31.7 12 Frenchay 5,846 4,483 -30.4 13 The Maudsley Hospital 148 115 -28.7 14 Moorfields Eye Hospital 1,720 1,350 -27.4 15 Aylesbury Vale 5,111 4,024 -27.0 16 Victoria† 2,739 2,180 -25.6 17 North West Hertfordshire 2,409 1,930 -24.8 18 Coventry 8,106 6,501 -24.7 19 Northallerton 627 506 -23.9 20 * Out of 191 district health authorities † Now part of Riverside District Health Authority
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Table 2 Waiting list: Ranking by percentage decrease of total waiting list cases between September 1982 and 1985 District health authority 1982 1985 Percentage change Rank* Darlington 3,140 1,360 -56.7 1 Newham 2,222 999 -55.0 2 North West Durham 1,325 643 -51.5 3 Rugby 864 432 -50.0 4 Macclesfield 2,302 1,152 -50.0 5 North Tees 1,958 995 -49.2 6 Grimsby 2,355 1,204 -48.9 7 The estimated average cost of a hip operation, based on average length of stay of 24 days, and costs in large acute hospitals, is £3,300 at 1986–87 prices, allowing for capital costs and the cost of the prosthesis.