Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients are waiting, and for how long, for appointments in hospital with ophthalmic specialists.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The information is not available in the format requested.

The referral to treatment waiting times standard is that 92% of patients still waiting to start consultant-led treatment for non-urgent conditions at the end of each month should have been waiting within 18 weeks from referral. At the end of January 2016, there were 327,066 patients waiting to start ophthalmology treatment, 94% of whom had been waiting within 18 weeks, with an average median waiting time of 6.9 weeks. It is not known how many of these patients were waiting for a first outpatient appointment rather than to be admitted to hospital.

Information on how many patients are waiting for follow-up appointments, and for how long, is not collected.