Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 July 2023 to Question 192573 on Health Services: Waiting Lists, what the average waiting list time for specialist clinical (a) care and (b) surgery was in (i) February, (ii) April and (iii) June 2023 for people in Wirral South constituency.

As detailed in the answer to Question 192573, this data is not available in the format requested for a breakdown between specialist clinical care and surgery. The average waiting time nationally for referral to treatment for elective care was 14.5 weeks in February 2023 and 13.8 weeks in April 2023. Official NHS England figures for this statistic in June 2023 are not yet available, however the most recent published statistic for May 2023 was 14.1 weeks on average. These figures relate to the average time a patient is still waiting for their treatment to begin, at the end of the given month.

Average waiting times are not available per constituency. However, as of 28 May, Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust had 41,375 people waiting for treatment, with over 58% waiting under 18 weeks.