Hospital waiting list targets in NI will be missed, say officials

The waiting list targets have been deemed impossible to achieve due to a shortage of funding

Targets set out in a major plan for cutting Northern Ireland's healthcare waiting lists will not be achieved, the Department of Health has said.

A framework published in 2021 proposed a £700m investment over five years to deal with lengthy waits for patients needing assessments or surgery.

But officials have said a lack of cash has led to "significant uncertainties" about implementing that plan.

Northern Ireland has the worst waiting list figures in the UK.

As of 31 March there were 401,201 patients waiting for their first consultant-led outpatient appointment.

The framework set a target of March 2026 for no patient waiting more than 52 weeks for a first appointment, and 26 weeks for a diagnostics appointment.

It also aimed to eradicate the gap between demand and capacity for planned surgery in the same timeframe.

Both of those targets were dependent on sustained funding which has not been made available.

'Going on for too long'

In the absence of a functioning power-sharing government at Stormont, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris set the 2023-24 budget for the region in April.

Speaking at the time, he said departments faced difficult decisions "in order to live within the funding available".

The Department of Health is receiving £7.25bn for day-to-day spending this year - that is similar to the amount it received last year.

But senior medics have said an increase of about 7% is required if services are to improve.

Healthcare waiting lists in Northern Ireland are the worst in the UK

In a statement on Friday, the Department of Health said that even if it received "new, recurrent investment" now it would not be possible to achieve its target for cutting waiting lists.

"The deficit between demand and capacity has been going on for too long and the waiting list backlog has been exacerbated by the impact of Covid."

The framework consisted of 55 actions to reduce waiting lists and to improve the capacity within the health service.

The department said "significant progress" had been made in some key areas, such as the establishment day procedure centres and elective overnight centres for surgical patients.

But it said that without additional funding there were "significant uncertainties on the future implementation of the framework, including the rate at which waiting times will be reduced".