Waiting Lists/Times

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of patients admitted to out-patient waiting lists by their general practitioner were seen within 13 weeks in each year since 1990. (80786)

The figures are shown in the table. Commissioner-based out-patient waiting times figures are only available from June 1997.

*Percentage of general practitioner referrals for first out-patient appointment seen within 13 weeks (commissioner-based)*
	Quarter	Percentage of patients seen in under 13 weeks	Total number of patients seen in quarter
1997	June	83.5	1,757,243
1998	March	80.7	1,790,658
1999	March	77.0	1,876,685
2000	March	73.4	1,968,469
2001	March	75.6	2,046,691
2002	March	74.4	2,065,774
2003	March	76.5	2,002,030
2004	March	80.1	2,022,454
2005	March	84.0	1,929,415
2006	March	95.8	1,951,789
Source: QM08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people waited for treatment on an (a) in-patient and (b) out-patient waiting list in each year since 1979. (80806)

The information requested is shown in the table. Note that the full out-patient list was collected for the first time in April 2004.

*Number of patients on in-patient and out-patient waiting lists, 1997 to 2006 (provider-based)*
As at March each year	In-patient ordinary	Day case	Total	Out-patient
1979	752,422	—	752,422	—
1980	664,919	—	664,919	—
1981	628,333	—	628,333	—
1982	622,480	—	622,480	—
1983	726,186	—	726,186	—
1984	692,945	—	692,945	—
1985	674,453	—	674,453	—
1986	673,107	—	673,107	—
1987¹	687,945	—	687,945	—
1988	717,892	158,354	876,246	—
1989	741,822	180,854	922,676	—
1990	746,694	212,282	958,976	—
1991	729,061	219,182	948,243	—
1992	663,264	254,453	917,717	—
1993	664,681	330,293	994,974	—
1994	655,287	410,082	1,065,369	—
1995	582,642	461,409	1,044,051	—
1996	540,037	507,992	1,048,029	—
1997	566,588	591,416	1,158,004	—
1998	593,042	704,620	1,297,662	—
1999	508,657	564,203	1,072,860	—
2000	502,174	534,892	1,037,066	—
2001	494,334	512,393	1,006,727	—
2002	499,954	535,411	1,035,365	—
2003	462,730	529,345	992,075	—
2004	407,606	498,147	905,753	²1,379,502
2005	350,762	470,960	821,722	1,322,685
2006	304,107	480,447	784,554	1,165,659
¹ Prior to 1988, in-patient waiting list did not include day case admissions. ²Figure quoted for April 2004. Total number waiting for out-patient appointment not collected prior to April 2004. Source: KH07 and QM08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the answer of 22 June 2006, Official Report, column 2109W, on waiting times, how many (a) English and (b) Welsh patients had been waiting more than six months for an NHS in-patient operation at English hospitals at the end of April 2006. (82219)

The table provides details of the number of patients who have been waiting more than six months for in-patient admission within English national health service provider trusts at the end of April 2006. The data is split down to show patient nationality.

	Number of patients
Total	909
of which:
English	120
Welsh	786
Scottish	2
Guernsey	1

Volume 448: debated on Monday 3 July 2006