§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give the current waiting list for each specialty in Leicestershire health authority.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe information requested is given in the table. The number of patients waiting for treatment is not a relevant measure of the quality of service provided. It is the length of time that patients wait that matters, and the number of patients waiting over a year in Leicestershire district health authority has fallen by over 60 per cent. from 2,800 in March 1979 to 1,100 in March 1990. In addition, the number of patients treated in this district has risen by nearly 49 per cent. between 1979 and 1990 from 74,000 to 110,000. The total waiting list also reduced over the same period, from 10,777 to 9,098. The total number waiting in March 1990 therefore represented on average four weeks' work in hand, compared with the eight weeks' work represented by the total list in March 1979.
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Leicester Health Authority: Waiting List at 31 March 1990 Patients waiting Over 1 year Percentage over 1 year General Surgery 1,135 29 3 Urology 330 4 1 Trauma and Orthopaedics 1,601 152 9 ENT 1,950 249 13 Ophthalmology 438 1 0 Oral Surgery 508 14 3 Neurosurgery 14 0 0 Plastic Surgery 874 480 55 Cardiothoracic Surgery 560 71 13 Accident and Emergency 24 0 0 General Medicine 5 0 0 Cardiology 336 16 5 Nephrology 5 0 0 Neurology 8 8 100 Rheumatology 16 0 0 Paediatrics 2 0 0 Geriatric Medicine 10 0 0 Gynaecology 1,082 47 4 General Practice 147 0 0 Mental Handicap 30 24 80 Mental Illness 18 5 28
Patients waiting Over 1 year Percentage over 1 year Radiotherapy 5 0 0 9,098 1,100 12 Source: KHO6, KHO7 KHO7A.