§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients are awaiting renal transplant; and what is the average waiting time for such a transplant.
671W
§ Mr. FreemanThe United Kingdom waiting list for renal transplants, as notified to the United Kingdom transplant service on 16 February 1989, was 3,521.
Waiting time information is not readily available in the form requested. Of those waiting, 35 per cent. had been on the list for less than one year, 19 per cent. for between one and two years, 12 per cent. for between two and three years, nine per cent. for between three and four years, and 16 per cent. for more than four years. The remaining nine per cent. were not classified. The length of time a patient waits for a transplant depends on a number of factors, the principal one being how difficult it is to find a suitably matched donor organ.