HC Deb 24 July 1991 vol 195 cc682-3W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his practice to publish hospital waiting lists; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

We currently collect and publish information on waiting lists and times in districts within which treatment is provided, rather than by individual hospitals. Since April 1991 we have also been collecting figures by district of residence. Both sets of figures will be collated within the Department for up to two years to ensure continuity of data.

Thereafter we propose to collect centrally only the residence-based figures, in order to monitor purchasing health authorities' effectiveness in securing early treatment for their residents.

We shall bring forward, in the patients charter, proposals for the publication of waiting time information by hospital and individual consultant, which some regions already do. This will be a considerable step forward for the NHS in providing relevant and up-to-date information for patients and their GPs.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish figures for both the last quarter of the financial year 1990–91 and the first quarter of the current financial year 1991–92, indicating the average length of waiting time for the following hospital operations(a) hip replacement, (b) cataracts, (c) ear, nose and throat, (d) knee joints and (e) other orthopaedic operations.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Waiting time information on specific operations is not collected centrally. Information at 31 March 1990 and latest published information at 30 September 1990 for those waiting for in-patient treatment in the specialties of ENT, trauma and orthopaedics and ophthalmology is given in the table.

The percentage of patients waiting more than one year is the generally accepted measure of waiting time.

Information at 31 March 1991 will not be available until later in the year.

In-patient waiting lists—31 March 1991 and 30 September 1990—England
Total waiting1 Waiting over 1 year Percentage over 1 year
March 1990 September 1990 March 1990 September 1990 March 1990 September 1990
ENT 105,941 102,770 22,294 20,678 20 19
Trauma and orthopaedics 135,075 132,276 38,253 37,691 27 27
Ophthalmology 77,571 81,727 13,586 14,310 17 17

Source: KHO6, KHO7, KHO7A.

1 Excludes self-deferred cases—those patients who have refused an offer of admission.

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