§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list in(a) rank and (b) alphabetical order of health authority the (i) proportion and (ii) number of patients waiting (A) over 12 months and (B) over 18 months for in-patient treatment (1) at the last available date, (2) in March 1997 and (3) in June 1997. [15285]
977W
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 15 November 2001]: The information requested has been placed in the Library.
In line with the NHS Plan, inpatient waiting times will fall on a staged basis from 18 months now through to 15,12, nine and down to six months by 2005. As a result, we expect the average time patients wait for inpatient treatment to fall from three months to seven weeks.
As a first step towards this, the maximum waiting time for an inpatient appointment will be 15 months by the end of March 2002
§ Alistair BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients are waiting for admission for orthopaedic treatment at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust; how many were waiting in November(a) 2000, (b) 1999, (c) 1998 and (d) 1997; and how many have waited (i) six months, (ii) six to 12 months and (iii) 12 to 15 months. [15622]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 16 November 2001]: Figures for inpatient orthopaedic treatment are not available monthly but are collected on a quarterly basis.
Figures for patients waiting for orthopaedic admission at Bedford Hospitals National Health Service Trust are shown in the table.
Total waiting Up to 6 months 6–12 months 12–15 months March 1997 754 513 232 9 December 1998 1,143 565 422 115 December 1999 1,187 578 480 104 December 2000 1,189 505 458 139 Source:
KH07