§ Mr. ClellandTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 16 March,Official Report, 1035W column 700, to the hon. Member for Tyne Bridge, if she will initiate inquiries into the practice of consultants refusing, as a direct result of the patients charter, to accept on to their waiting lists patients referred by general practitioners for non-urgent operations on the basis that this would extend the waiting lists beyond Government guidelines of acceptability. [17076]
§ Mr. MaloneNo. Decisions on when patients are treated must be made by the doctors involved in the patient's care and must be based on their assessment of the patient's clinical needs and priority.