asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average waiting list time for each of the main specialties at the Oldham and District general hospital and Huddersfield Royal infirmary.
I regret that information on waiting times for admission to hospital is not available in the form requested. Average waiting times are misleading as admissions are arranged according to the circumstances of individual cases and patients needing emergency treatment are admitted without delay. North-Western and Yorkshire RHAs produce their information on waiting times for admission to hospital on different basis and at different times.At 31 January 1979, the number of patients awaiting admission to Oldham and district general hospital in each of the main specialties and the length of time they had been waiting were:
| Specialty | Under 3 months | 3–12 months | Over 1 year | Total |
| General medicine | 1 | — | — | 1 |
| Paediatrics | 2 | 4 | — | 6 |
| Geriatrics | 1 | 1 | — | 2 |
| General surgery | 165 | 123 | 60 | 348 |
| ENT | 170 | 115 | 60 | 345 |
| Traumatic and orthopaedic | — | — | 2 | 2 |
| Ophthalmology | — | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Gynaecology | 219 | 199 | 223 | 641 |
| Total | 558 | 443 | 346 | 1,347 |
At the Huddersfield Royal infirmary the number of patients awaiting adimission
Urgent Cases
| Non-Urgent Cases
| |||||
Specialty
| Total
| Waiting over one month
| Total
| Waiting over one year
| Total
| |
| General Medicine | … | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | — |
| General Surgery | … | 3 | 1 | 339 | Nil | 342 |
| ENT | … | 58 | 42 | 907 | 447 | 965 |
| Traumatic and orthopaedic | … | Nil | Nil | 352 | 17 | 352 |
| Ophthalmology | … | Nil | Nil | 165 | Nil | 165 |
| Gynaecology | … | 1 | Nil | 439 | 64 | 440 |
| Urology | … | Nli | Nil | 142 | Nil | 142 |
| Total | 62 | 43 | 2,344 | 528 | 2,406 | |
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people were waiting for hospital beds in the Dorset area on 1 January; and what were the numbers waiting at the same date in each of the past five years.
The figures are:
| 31 December 1974 | 6,692 |
| 31 December 1975 | 7,702 |
| 31 December 1976 | 7,313 |
| 31 December 1977 | 6,933 |
| 31 December 1978 | 6,500 |