To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the number of people in each health region who are currently waiting for an appointment with a consultant following referral by a general practitioner; if he will provide a breakdown of the length of time for which those people (a) have already waited and (b) are expected to wait; and if he will list for each region the waiting time being issued to new entrants for (i) ear, nose and throat, (ii) trauma and orthopaedic, (iii) general surgery, (iv) ophthalmology and (v) gynaecology consultants. [75066]
[holding answer 5 March 1999]: Waiting lists information is collected centrally only for hospital inpatients and day cases. Data are available on first outpatient referrals and the length of time that patients waited for their first outpatient appointment. The percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks following a General Medical Practitioner referral at 31 December 1998 for the specialties requested is provided in the table.
| NHS in Scotland: Percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks for referral at 31 December 1998p | ||||||||||
| ENT | Orthopaedics | General Surgery | Ophthalmology | Gynaecology | ||||||
| Health board | 9 weeks | 18 weeks | 9 weeks | 18 weeks | 9 weeks | 18 weeks | 9 weeks | 18 weeks | 9 weeks | 18 weeks |
| Argyll and Clyde | 45.5 | 87.3 | 31.3 | 62.3 | 91.3 | 99.3 | 59.0 | 93.5 | 84.9 | 98.9 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 69.1 | 98.3 | 54.8 | 93.3 | 89.1 | 98.2 | 39.5 | 74.9 | 68.3 | 93.4 |
| Borders | 72.2 | 97.6 | 51.0 | 97.9 | 79.3 | 98.9 | 80.7 | 97.6 | 78.2 | 96.2 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 20.0 | 80.0 | 42.9 | 60.6 | 69.3 | 99.5 | 64.5 | 99.6 | 67.9 | 93.4 |
| Fife | 38.1 | 86.4 | 43.6 | 68.1 | 63.3 | 91.9 | 44.1 | 77.0 | 75.9 | 90.4 |
| Forth Valley | 87.5 | 99.0 | 32.7 | 74.8 | 79.7 | 92.4 | 73.4 | 94.4 | 75.6 | 96.8 |
| Grampian | 39.1 | 83.5 | 45.3 | 79.5 | 57.5 | 96.1 | 70.6 | 95.9 | 84.8 | 98.5 |
| Greater Glasgow | 46.6 | 77.6 | 26.6 | 54.8 | 77.1 | 95.8 | 30.6 | 69.9 | 69.9 | 95.8 |
| Highland | 76.8 | 98.5 | 36.0 | 53.6 | 86.2 | 99.5 | 76.5 | 89.4 | 66.3 | 91.2 |
| Lanarkshire | 42.7 | 83.4 | 33.1 | 55.3 | 68.3 | 95.1 | 39.0 | 75.7 | 77.9 | 98.3 |
| Lothian | 50.5 | 87.2 | 39.8 | 68.6 | 71.8 | 93.0 | 57.8 | 81.2 | 72.1 | 94.4 |
| Orkney | 87.5 | 97.9 | 76.4 | 94.5 | 99.5 | 100.0 | 88.3 | 100.0 | 80.0 | 97.5 |
| Shetland | 98.6 | 100.0 | 61.2 | 98.5 | 99.6 | 99.6 | 84.8 | 100.0 | 73.1 | 100.0 |
| Tayside | 55.6 | 85.1 | 66.8 | 95.3 | 65.5 | 91.9 | 52.7 | 88.2 | 71.4 | 94.9 |
| Western Isles | 100.0 | 100.0 | 50.0 | 62.5 | 98.2 | 100.0 | 70.3 | 86.5 | 77.8 | 100.0 |
Source:
ISD, Scotland
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the (a) surgical waiting list figures and (b) specialist outpatient consultation figures in numerical and percentage terms for Scotland for March and September (i) 1992, (ii) 1993, (ii) 1994, (iv) 1995 and (v) 1996. [76148]
[holding answer 15 March 1999]: Information on the number of patients on the inpatient/day case waiting list for surgical specialties, on the dates requested, is given in Table 1.Information on waiting lists is collected centrally only for hospital inpatients and day cases. Data are available on first outpatient referrals and the length of time that patients waited for their first outpatient appointment. The number and percentage of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks following a General Medical Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referral for the quarters ending 31 March and 30 September in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996, is provided in Table 2. Information is not available for the respective quarters in 1992, as the data were not collected prior to 1 October 1992.
| Table 1: NHS in Scotland: Inpatient and day case waiting lists | |
| Date | Number on waiting list for surgical specialties1 |
| 31 March 1992 | 68,912 |
| 30 September 1992 | 69,916 |
| 31 March 1993 | 69,515 |
| 30 September 1993 | 68,030 |
| 31 March 1994 | 67,162 |
| 30 September 1994 | 65,691 |
| 31 March 1995 | 64,952 |
Information on waiting times for individual consultants within specialties is not collected centrally. Health Boards provide this information to all General Practitioner practices in their respective areas on a regular basis.
Table 1:NHS in Scotland: Inpatient and day case waiting lists
| |
Date
| Number on waiting list for surgical specialties1
|
| 30 September 1995 | 65,877 |
| 31 March 1996 | 67,488 |
| 30 September 1996 | 65,225 |
1 Surgical Specialties comprises general surgery (excluding vascular), vascular surgery, accident and emergency, anaesthetics, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, ear, nose and throat (ENT), neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, surgical paediatrics and urology. | |
Source:
ISD, Scotland
Table 2: NHS in Scotland: Percentage and numbers of patients who received a first outpatient appointment within 9 and 18 weeks of referral
| ||||
Number within
| Percentage within
| |||
Quarter ending
| 9 weeks
| 18 weeks
| 9 weeks
| 18 weeks
|
| 31 March 1993 | 167,733 | 214,837 | 72.3 | 92.6 |
| 30 September 1993 | 167,798 | 224,719 | 70.1 | 93.8 |
| 31 March 1994 | 175,852 | 223,438 | 73.3 | 93.1 |
| 30 September 1994 | 154,729 | 205,307 | 70.4 | 93.5 |
| 31 March 1995 | 168,657 | 214,468 | 72.8 | 92.6 |
| 30 September 1995 | 147,651 | 199,492 | 69.6 | 94.0 |
| 31 March 1996 | 157,179 | 204,823 | 71.6 | 93.3 |
| 30 September 1996 | 151,404 | 204,333 | 68.7 | 92.8 |
Source:
ISD, Scotland
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.