PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Out-patients: Children (4 March 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many outpatient (a) medical ophthalmology, (b) optometry and (c) orthotics appointments for children under 19 years of age were (i) cancelled and (ii) missed because the patient did not attend in 2014-15; and what the median waiting time for an (A) outpatient ophthalmology (B) medical ophthalmology (C) outpatient optometry, and (D) outpatient orthoptics appointment was in 2014-15.

Asked by:
Dame Siobhain McDonagh (Labour)

The information is shown in the following table.

Information on outpatient ophthalmology, medical ophthalmology, optometry, orthotics and orthoptics appointments for patients under 19 years of age in 2014-15

Outpatient appointments1 for patients under 19 years of age		All patients
Treatment specialty	Cancelled (by hospital or by patient)	Patient did not attend	Median wait time (days)2
Ophthalmology	98,774	93,099	35
Medical ophthalmology	565	5,448	28
Optometry	1,884	1,028	33
Orthotics	6,519	5,162	40
Orthoptics	70,327	54,062	35

Sources:

Hospital episode statistics, Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

1. These are not counts of people as the same person may have had more than one appointment within the same time period.
2. Waiting time is defined as the time in days between the date the referral request was received and the date of the first appointment, whether it was attended or not.

Answered by:
Alistair Burt (Conservative)
14 March 2016