§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in East Somerset NHS Trust have been waiting more than(a) three, (b) six, (c) nine, (d) 12, (e) 18, (f) 24, (g) 30 aid (h) 36 months for an (i) in-patient operation and (ii) out-patient appointment; and if he will make a statement. [1384]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 4 July 2001]: Information on hospital waiting times is published quarterly by the Department of Health in "Hospital 289W Waiting List Statistics: England" and "Waiting Times for First Outpatient Appointments in England: Detailed Statistics". This information is also available on the Department's web site at www.doh.gov.uk/waitingtimes.
The numbers of patients waiting for in-patient or day case treatment at East Somerset National Health Service Trust on 31 March 2001 were as follows:
Patients waiting for admission by number of months waiting Months Number 0–2 1,089 3–5 538 6–11 314 12–17 2 18+ 0 Total 1,943 These figures show a drop of 6 per cent. in the total numbers waiting for treatment compared with 31 March 2000.
The number of general practitioner written referral requests seen as a first out-patients in Quarter 4 (1 January–31 March 2001) were:
Of those GP referral requests seen, the number who waited (in weeks) Weeks Number 0-less than 4 2,251 4-less than 13 2,267 13-less than 26 758 26+ 208 Total 5,484 Information on the total number of patients waiting for a first out-patient appointment on a given date is not collected but the numbers of people waiting over 13 weeks and 26 weeks are. At East Somerset NHS Trust 369 patients had been waiting over 13 weeks and 97 had been waiting over 26 weeks at 31 March 2001. This represents a drop of 51.6 per cent. and 62.3 per cent. respectively compared with the numbers waiting at 31 March 2000.