§ Mr. Evennettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what criteria are used to decide whether treatment is non-urgent for the purposes of National Health Service statistics.
§ Mr. NewtonThe classification of an in-patient waiting list case as urgent or non-urgent is decided by the clinician in charge on the date to which the statistical return relates. The steering group on health services information said in its first report that it may be of use for local purposes to subdivide statistics of patients awaiting admission by clinical urgency of patient but did not recommend that statistics classified by clinical urgency should be collected centrally. From 1 April 1987, when the recommendations of the steering group are implemented, this information will therefore not be collected centrally.