§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further action he proposes to reduce waiting lists and times.
§ Mr. FowlerThe Health Service is now treating record numbers of patients and waiting lists are far shorter than when this Government came to office. We want now to make further improvements.
In July 1986 I launched a three-year drive to reduce waiting lists and times in the National Health Service. The chairman of regional health authorities reported to me on 586W the nature, extent and cause of waiting list and time problems in every district. These reports set out the action already under way and that proposed for 1987–88 to make significant improvements. To allow health authorities to build further upon those plans and make more rapid progress, I announced in November a £50 million waiting list fund over the next two years. Regional health authorities have submitted bids for the first allocation of £25 million for 1987–88 and I am today announcing the allocations from the fund for each region.
The result is that over the coming year health authorities intend to treat over 100,000 additional patients from the in-patient waiting list. All told, this extra £25 million will finance over 350 different projects throughout the country. I expect this to lead to significant improvements in waiting list totals. Many of the projects will additionally result in improving waiting time for first out-patient appointments.
The plans submitted by health authorities have been carefully considered under the supervision of Sir Roy Griffiths, the deputy chairman of the National Health Services Management Board. The aim has been to target resources at districts with the worst problems and where central funding can have the most impact.
The regional chairmen's reports confirm our view that the cause of excessive waiting lists varies from district to district and specialty to specialty. Many can be improved within existing resources and districts are acting upon those now. Other problems require special, additional funding, for equipment, supplies, staff, or additional operating sessions at evenings and weekends.
The projects funded are of many different types:
We are funding a mobile operating theatre in Mersey region which would allow an additional 1,680 in-patient cases (including 120 hip replacements) in a full year;We are funding an additional out-patient clinic in Trent region allowing 1,200 children to be seen in the ear, nose and throat specialty;We are building day theatres and day wards and so allowing many more cases to be treated without the need for in-patient admission; and enabling the purchase of ophthalmic and gynaecological lasers allowing patients to be treated as out patients or day cases.Among the new operations to be performed there will be at least 5,000 extra hip replacements and 8,000 extra cataract operations as well as a range of other surgery where patients have often had to wait in pain and discomfort.
In some cases, regions have found that patients can have earlier treatment if they are willing to travel, perhaps between neighbouring districts, or in exceptional cases through the cost effective use of the private sector. A major feature of the waiting list drive, and of the bids put forward, has been to assist the matching of spare capacity in the Health Service with excessive waiting lists elsewhere. Regions have been asked to make sure, also, that general practitioners receive all the information they need about waiting lists and waiting times in their own and neighbouring districts.
The projects funded and the action programmes already under way will lead to significant improvements in waiting times for patients. With the continued active involvement of clinicians and general practitioners, health authorities and health service management, I am sure that
587Wfurther substantial progress is possible. The allocations from the fund I have announced today are another major step towards that.
The regional allocations from the waiting list fund are set out in the following table:
Allocations of wailing list fund 1987–88 Region Allocation £ million Northern 1.700 Yorkshire 1.757 Trent 2.410 East Anglia 1.018 North West Thames 1.590 North East Thames 2.070 South East Thames 2.040 South West Thames 1.330 Wessex 1.400 Oxford 1010 South Western 1.650 West Midlands 2.880 Mersey 1.350 North Western 2.295 Moorfields SHA 0.500 Total 25.000