HC Deb 22 March 1999 vol 328 cc66-8W
Mr. Moore

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the number of people in each health region who are currently waiting for an appointment with a consultant following referral by a general practitioner; if he will provide a breakdown of the length of time for which those people(a) have already waited and (b) are expected to wait; and if he will list for each region the waiting time being issued to new entrants for (i) ear, nose and throat, (ii) trauma and orthopaedic, (iii) general surgery, (iv) ophthalmology and (v) gynaecology consultants. [75066]

Mr. Galbraith

[holding answer 5 March 1999]: Waiting lists information is collected centrally only for hospital inpatients and day cases. Data are available on first outpatient referrals and the length of time that patients waited for their first outpatient appointment. The percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks following a General Medical Practitioner referral at 31 December 1998 for the specialties requested is provided in the table.

NHS in Scotland: Percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks for referral at 31 December 1998p
ENT Orthopaedics General Surgery Ophthalmology Gynaecology
Health board 9 weeks 18 weeks 9 weeks 18 weeks 9 weeks 18 weeks 9 weeks 18 weeks 9 weeks 18 weeks
Argyll and Clyde 45.5 87.3 31.3 62.3 91.3 99.3 59.0 93.5 84.9 98.9
Ayrshire and Arran 69.1 98.3 54.8 93.3 89.1 98.2 39.5 74.9 68.3 93.4
Borders 72.2 97.6 51.0 97.9 79.3 98.9 80.7 97.6 78.2 96.2
Dumfries and Galloway 20.0 80.0 42.9 60.6 69.3 99.5 64.5 99.6 67.9 93.4
Fife 38.1 86.4 43.6 68.1 63.3 91.9 44.1 77.0 75.9 90.4
Forth Valley 87.5 99.0 32.7 74.8 79.7 92.4 73.4 94.4 75.6 96.8
Grampian 39.1 83.5 45.3 79.5 57.5 96.1 70.6 95.9 84.8 98.5
Greater Glasgow 46.6 77.6 26.6 54.8 77.1 95.8 30.6 69.9 69.9 95.8
Highland 76.8 98.5 36.0 53.6 86.2 99.5 76.5 89.4 66.3 91.2
Lanarkshire 42.7 83.4 33.1 55.3 68.3 95.1 39.0 75.7 77.9 98.3
Lothian 50.5 87.2 39.8 68.6 71.8 93.0 57.8 81.2 72.1 94.4
Orkney 87.5 97.9 76.4 94.5 99.5 100.0 88.3 100.0 80.0 97.5
Shetland 98.6 100.0 61.2 98.5 99.6 99.6 84.8 100.0 73.1 100.0
Tayside 55.6 85.1 66.8 95.3 65.5 91.9 52.7 88.2 71.4 94.9
Western Isles 100.0 100.0 50.0 62.5 98.2 100.0 70.3 86.5 77.8 100.0

Source:

ISD, Scotland

From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.

Mrs. Ewing

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the(a) surgical waiting list figures and (b) specialist outpatient consultation figures in numerical and percentage terms for Scotland for March and September (i) 1992, (ii) 1993, (ii) 1994, (iv) 1995 and (v) 1996. [76148]

Mr. Galbraith

[holding answer 15 March 1999]: Information on the number of patients on the inpatient/day case waiting list for surgical specialties, on the dates requested, is given in Table 1.

Information on waiting lists is collected centrally only for hospital inpatients and day cases. Data are available on first outpatient referrals and the length of time that patients waited for their first outpatient appointment. The number and percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks following a General Medical Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referral for the quarters ending 31 March and 30 September in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996, is provided in Table 2. Information is not available for the respective quarters in 1992, as the data were not collected prior to 1 October 1992.

Table 1: NHS in Scotland: Inpatient and day case waiting lists
Date Number on waiting list for surgical specialties1
31 March 1992 68,912
30 September 1992 69,916
31 March 1993 69,515
30 September 1993 68,030
31 March 1994 67,162
30 September 1994 65,691
31 March 1995 64,952

Information on waiting times for individual consultants within specialties is not collected centrally. Health Boards provide this information to all General Practitioner practices in their respective areas on a regular basis.

Table 1:NHS in Scotland: Inpatient and day case waiting lists
Date Number on waiting list for surgical specialties1
30 September 1995 65,877
31 March 1996 67,488
30 September 1996 65,225
1 Surgical Specialties comprises general surgery (excluding vascular), vascular surgery, accident and emergency, anaesthetics, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, ear, nose and throat (ENT), neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, surgical paediatrics and urology.

Source:

ISD, Scotland

Table 2: NHS in Scotland: Percentage and numbers of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks of referral
Number within Percentage within
Quarter ending 9 weeks 18 weeks 9 weeks 18 weeks
31 March 1993 167,733 214,837 72.3 92.6
30 September 1993 167,798 224,719 70.1 93.8
31 March 1994 175,852 223,438 73.3 93.1
30 September 1994 154,729 205,307 70.4 93.5
31 March 1995 168,657 214,468 72.8 92.6
30 September 1995 147,651 199,492 69.6 94.0
31 March 1996 157,179 204,823 71.6 93.3
30 September 1996 151,404 204,333 68.7 92.8

Source:

ISD, Scotland

From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.