§ Mr. PatchettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has on the number of people within Trent regional health authority who failed to attend national health service hospitals after being granted firm appointments in the year to March 1991; and how many of these obtained private treatment instead.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyI refer the hon. Member to the reply my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary gave my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest (Sir Patrick McNair-Wilson) on 19 November 1991 at column130. The total number of patients on the waiting list at 31 March 1991 in Trent for ordinary or day case admission who had deferred admission at their own request was 4,417. Information is not collected centrally on numbers who failed to attend for in-patient and day case treatment or who obtained private treatment instead.