Waiting lists: 307,000 wait for first consultant appointment

The figures cover the three-month period to the end of March, and are set to get worse when the coronavirus pandemic is taken into account

The number of people waiting for a first appointment with a consultant in NI now stands at just over 307,000.

That is a rise of more than 2,000 people since December, and 18,312 since 31 March 2019.

The health department figures cover the three months to 31 March and do not factor in most of the Covid-19 crisis period.

Some appointments and outpatient services have been reduced during the lockdown.

Patients have also been reluctant to attend.

Almost 80% of patients, more than 240,000, were waiting for more than nine weeks for a first consultant-led appointment.

This is, again, a rise from the December figures.

'Disappointing but not unexpected'

The health service targets for the end of March 2020 had been that at least 50% of patients should wait no longer than nine weeks for their first appointment, with no patient waiting more than a year.

But that target was set before the pandemic.

However, the number of patients attending their first outpatient appointment has dropped by nearly 12,000 - more than 10% - since December 2019.

'I burst into tears'

A County Antrim woman waiting almost two years for a hysterectomy says she is living in constant pain.

Heather North, 41, who was treated for breast cancer last year, also suffers from a rare gynaecological condition adenomyosis which means she has to have drug injections every four weeks administered by a district nurse.

A hysterectomy operation had been scheduled at the Causeway Hospital for March this year but was cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Mrs North told the BBC: "I just burst into tears.

"I had been waiting so long and now, at this point, I am just so depressed about it all.

"I have been so upset my parents even offered to take out a loan on their house so I could go private - and they are pensioners."

In a statement the Northern Health and Social Care Trust said that "during the Covid-19 surge phase, elective surgery was accommodated for all red flag patients (suspect and confirmed cancers)".

It said that while planning for urgent and routine procedures has begun the trust is not yet in a "position yet to provide indicative dates for surgery".

Mrs North said she was told she had been added to the waiting list for a hysterectomy on 14 November 2018.

"At that point I was told it was a 10-month waiting list already," she said.

"Now, with this situation it seems there is no end to it."

The Northern Health Trust added that "these lists will be commenced as soon as is possible and patients will be offered a date in accordance with their clinical urgency".

Health Minister Robin Swann has said the figures for the next quarter will make "even more depressing reading"

Health Minister Robin Swann said the figures were "very disappointing but not unexpected".

"Today's statistics only cover the position to the end of March, so simply provide an early indication of the full impact of the virus on waiting times," he said.

"I need to be very honest and signal that the figures for the next quarter, when published, will make even more depressing reading."

The figures do not cover the months of April or May, thus the warning that they will be even worse when the next results are released towards the end of the summer.

There are 93,641 patients waiting to be admitted to hospitals in Northern Ireland, an increase of 3,127 since December, and 6,191 more than at the end of March 2019.

Mr Swann said: "For those who think or call for a return to where we were at the start of January, I simply say: 'We cannot go there.'

"The system was broken and struggling then, so simply returning to the same place would be a disservice not just to those who are waiting but to all those who have worked so hard in the last few weeks."