To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for (a) cancer and (b) cardiac patients in Barnet who were waiting for (A) outpatient appointments and (B) surgery or other in-patient treatment in (i) May 1997 and (ii) May 2006; and if she will make a statement. (96928)

Cancer waiting times data is not available for 1997 and 2006 data is not available in the format requested. Cardiac waiting times data is not held centrally.

A cancer out-patient waiting time standard of a maximum two weeks from urgent general practitioner referral to first being seen by a specialist was introduced in 2000. The latest quarterly performance data (quarter one, April to June 2006) shows that at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals NHS trust 100 per cent. of cancer patients were seen within two weeks of urgent referral by their GP.

Cancer treatment standards of two months from urgent GP referral to first cancer treatment and one month from diagnosis to first cancer treatment were introduced at the end of 2005. Latest quarterly performance data shows that 95.1 per cent. of patients were treated within two months of urgent referral by their general practitioner and 100 per cent. of cancer patients were treated within one month of diagnosis at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals NHS trust.