Health Minister brands NI hospital waiting lists 'appalling'

Northern Ireland's hospital waiting times are "appalling", Health Minister Robin Swann has said.

Figures published by the Department of Health on Thursday show over 335,000 people are waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment.

More than 189,000 of those have been waiting longer than a year.

The figures reveal that the number of people waiting longer than a year has increased by more than 20,000, compared with 31 December 2020, and by more than 70,000 compared with 31 March 2020.

The Department's target relating to outpatient waiting times states that, by March 2021, at least 50% of patients should wait no longer than nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment, with no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks.

In a statement, Robin Swann confirmed the new NI elective care framework is being finalised for publication.

"I will be making a specific ask of the Executive to commit recurrent targeted funding for waiting times over a number of years – sustained investment over and above day-to-day health spending," he said.

"I know all NI departments are under growing financial pressure.

"Prioritising waiting times will involve some difficult choices elsewhere. I accept that, but I also believe that we have no choice. We cannot tolerate thousands of our citizens being stranded on ever-growing waiting lists."

"This is not just about funding, of course. We have to reshape services to improve our health service’s capacity and ensure this backlog never occurs again," Mr Swann added.

"I have heard calls for waiting lists to be addressed in the same way we tackled Covid-19. I understand that view. Indeed, the innovation, determination and togetherness that we have seen during the pandemic will all be essential.

"However, it should also be remembered that we tackled Covid with unprecedented levels of emergency funding at our disposal. We do not have that for waiting times."

The Health Minister said the Executive owed it to healthcare professionals, who "have been making enormous efforts to minimise the impact of the pandemic on patients" to tackle the problem.

Mr Swann added: "Many of them are exhausted. We need to show staff and patients that we are serious about tackling these issues."