§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the length of the waiting list of orthopaedic operations by hospital in the Hull health authority area; and what is the number of patients awaiting treatment.
§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 19 October 1990]: Information about the number of patients on hospital waiting lists is collected according to the specialty in which treatment will be given and not by the diagnosis or type of operation. The information is available centrally only in terms of the district of treatment, not individual hospitals.
The number of patients waiting more than a year in trauma and orthopaedics in Hull district health authority has fallen from 343 in March 1979 to 51 in March 1990. In addition, the number of patients treated in this specialty in this district has risen by 35 per cent. between 1979 and 1990 from 2,300 to 3,100. The total waiting list reduced over the same period, from 874 to 452. The total number 410W waiting in March 1990 therefore represented on average only eight weeks' work in hand, compared with the 20 weeks' work represented by the total list in March 1979.