§ Rev. Martin SmythTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a table showing for each district of the Northern, Western and Southern health and social services boards, the number of people on waiting lists for each specialty for the last five years for which figures are available, giving a breakdown of the total waiting list by time spent on list.
§ Mr. NeedhamI am sending to the hon. Gentleman and arranging for copies to be made available in the Library of tables showing, for each district unit of management of the Northern, Western and Southern health and social services boards, the number of in-patients on waiting lists at 31 December by specialty and by time spent on list for 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986. As a result of industrial action, information is not available for 1982.
Information on out-patient waiting lists could be extracted only at disproportionate cost.