HC Deb 31 January 1992 vol 202 c693W
Mr. Allason

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on waiting lists for orthopaedic surgery in the South Western health authority.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

At 31 March 1991 there were a total of 13,400 people waiting for trauma and orthopaedic treatment in South Western regional health authority (a reduction of 723 compared with March 1990). Of that total 75 per cent. had waited less than one year. The numbers of patients waiting over one year and over two years fell from 3,486 and 1,162 in March 1990 to 3,341 and 858 in March 1991, reductions of 4 per cent. and 26 per cent. respectively.