§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to collect centrally the figures for delays between a general practitioner recommending a patient to see a specialist for cancer diagnosis and the 858W date on which the patient is actually seen by a consultant; at what level of the National Health Service these figures are currently kept; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonWe are implementing the recommendation of the Körner steering group that there should be research to identify the most relevant and easily administered measure of the time patients in all specialties wait between referral by a general practitioner and an outpatient appointment. Data on outpatient waiting times are collected by individual district and regional health authorities but the form of the information varies. We would expect consultants and Health Service managers to regard referrals for the diagnosis of cancer as high priorities and to monitor them closely to prevent unacceptable delays.