§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many Service personnel are awaiting medical consultations and operations; and what action has been taken to reduce delays in these consultations and operations. [HL1397]
§ Lord BachThe Ministry of Defence holds information on the numbers of Service personnel waiting for consultations and medical treatment at Ministry of Defence hospital units (MDHUs); the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre; and directly managed units in Cyprus, Gibraltar and Northern Ireland. No information is held centrally on Service personnel who are treated within the NHS as NHS patients.
93WAAs at 31 December 2003, there were 6,226 patients awaiting medical consultation and 2,332 awaiting an operation.
By the nature of the activities they are asked to do, many referrals within the military healthcare system are related to orthopaedics. To reduce waiting times for consultant appointments for such conditions, the MoD is developing the role of its regional rehabilitation units (RRUs) to enable sports injury-trained doctors to assess most new orthopaedic referrals. In this way those patients who do not require a hospital specialist opinion will begin an earlier remedial programme through the RRU. This can reduce waiting times by up to approximately six months.
In addition, to reduce waiting times for surgical intervention a fast-track pilot scheme for orthopaedic injuries has been run in partnership with the South Tees NHS Trust. This has succeeded in getting military personnel back to work more quickly and the potential for future schemes with other NHS trusts in regions with high military populations is now being explored.