Cancer: Waiting Lists

Mr. Nicholas Brown
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in reducing waiting times for the treatment of (a) cancer and (b) heart disease; and what the average waiting time is for treatment of each condition in (i) Newcastle Primary Care Trust area, (ii) North Tyneside Primary Care Trust area and (iii) England.

Ms Rosie Winterton
Over the past year, the national health service has made excellent progress on cancer waiting times with full achievement of both the 31-day target and the 62-day target. In quarter 3, 2006-07, performance nationally against these standards was 99.6 per cent. and 96.3 per cent. respectively. For the same period, the performance of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne hospitals NHS trust against these targets was 99.6 per cent. and 96.1 per cent. respectively.

Provisional data at 31 March 2007 indicate that 5,967 people in England were waiting for a heart operation, none of whom were waiting over three months. 136 of these were waiting for treatment at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne hospitals NHS trust.