'Real progress' on waiting lists, says minister, but 'awful lot to be done'

The minister says "we have made a really positive start" in tackling waiting lists

Northern Ireland is "showing real progress" in tackling waiting lists, the health minister has said but he acknowledged that there was an "awful lot still to be done".

He was speaking to the BBC after the latest Department of Heath figures indicated that outpatient waits of more than four years were down by 14%.

Mike Nesbitt said: "There are problems, but we have made a really positive start."

According to the most recent statistics from the department, published in June, more than 440,000 people in Northern Ireland were waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment across four of its trust areas on 31 December 2024.

Earlier this year, Prof Mark Taylor, was appointed to help the department drive waiting lists down and said the delays were "nothing short of a national shame".

The lists were at an all-time high with some specialities recording the highest number of patients and waits across the UK.

In March, the Programme for Government (PfG) set targets for the department, including an aim to treat an extra 70,000 patients by 2027.

On Tuesday, the department said that almost 59,000 additional outpatient, diagnostic and inpatient procedures had been delivered.

Speaking on Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Nesbitt said: "This is just a start."

However, he said: "If you want to get the waiting lists to where they should be, it's going to take five years, with an investment every year of a £135m."

"Which we don't have," he added.

Nesbitt said tackling waiting times "was never going to be a quick fix"

In August, BBC News NI reported that some patients who had been red flagged for breast cancer assessments were waiting up to seven weeks to be seen in Northern Ireland.

The target is 14 days.

The minster said hearing about people on long waiting lists is one of the most "distressing" aspects of the job.

The minister also said improvements are being made in key service areas

The Elective Care Framework plan to tackle waiting lists was published in June 2021, updated in 2024 and in May a funding plan was published.

In the department's update on Tuesday, it announced that along with the 14% drop in outpatient appointment waiting times, "surgical waits of more than four years are down by 21%".

"Waits have fallen by almost a quarter in named specialties like gallbladders and tonsils."

The minister said: "These are early steps, but they show that focus and investment can change lives. The progress we are now seeing is very real."