Waiting times ‘fall’
Nearly 50,000 people in England were waiting over six months for an operation at the end of April 2005, new figures show.
This represents an increase of over ten per cent on figures for March, but a fall of nearly 50 per cent on the figures for April 2004, when 84,000 people waited more than six months.
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb said the figures would concern the Government, “as they show just what a challenge meeting the target of no-one waiting over six months will be”.
And he warned: “The real danger is that managers will be put under massive pressure to meet the targets at all costs and distort clinical priorities.”
The number of patients waiting to be admitted to NHS hospitals also rose slightly in April compared to the previous month, but fell by 8.1 per cent when compared with April 2004.
Opposition parties said the figures did not give a true picture of the number of people waiting for operations.
Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “These waiting list figures don’t give a full picture. They don’t give hidden waits, waiting time for diagnosis and average time, which has risen by five days since 1999.
“Across the UK 1.1 million people are still waiting for operations. If the gains in productivity achieved before 1997 continued, those waiting lists could have been brought down dramatically.”
Mr Webb added: “What these figures mask is the true number of people stuck on hidden waiting lists. People waiting for a diagnosis sometimes languish for more than a year before they even get on the official waiting list. Ministers must publish the full waiting list as soon as possible, so that people know how long they will really have to wait.”
