asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will introduce a computerized system to enable general practitioners to ascertain in each health care district which consultant in each speciality has the shortest waiting list for (a)inpatients and (b) outpatients.

Departmental guidance on the management of in-patient waiting lists suggests that waiting list information should be made available to general practitioners so that a patient may be given the opportunity to be referred to a hospital with a shorter wait. We are at present funding a pilot study in the West Midlands Region making use of a computer system to test the effect upon referral practice of providing general practitioners with regular information about total (both in-patient and out-patient) waiting times at hospitals outside their own district. If this proves successful we will consider how it might be extended more widely.