Cataracts: Waiting Lists

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting times for treatment of cataracts in NHS hospitals were in (a) 2005 and (b) at the latest date for which figures are available; and how many treatments were provided (i) in 2005 and (ii) in the last 12 months. (220566)

The information is in the following table.

Median days waited for cataract operations and number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) where a cataract operation was the main or secondary procedure in both 2005-06 and 2006-07 in NHS Hospitals England and activity performed in the independent sector in England commissioned by the English NHS
	Median days waited	FCEs
2005-06	68	302,876
2006-07	69	305,612
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

Volume 479: debated on Monday 1 September 2008