Children's waiting lists at an all-time high, report says

More than 22,000 children are waiting for treatment, a new report finds

The number of children waiting for outpatient appointments has reached "an all-time high", a new report has found.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) report said waiting lists rose by 172% for general outpatient care over seven years.

The record high of 22,272 children waiting to be seen represented a 22% increase in 12 months.

Dr Ray Nethercott said it was "nothing short of a catastrophe" and could have "irreversible" consequences.

Dr Nethercott, who is the RCPCH Officer for Ireland, told BBC News NI the report reveals a system where young people are a "low priority".

The report also highlights the number of children and young people waiting over a year for treatment - namely a 33% increase between June 2022 and June 2023.

Dr Nethercott said long wait times are "profoundly damaging for children"

Dr Nethercott said the consequences of such long waiting times are "profoundly damaging for children".

"We know that for all age groups, Northern Ireland has some of the worst waiting times in the UK, but we also know that for children time is felt relatively," he said.

'Consequences are irreversible'

"Long waits are also more dangerous for children and young people with many treatments needed to be given by a specific age or development stage," Dr Nethercott said.

"Often if you miss the right window to treat a child or wait too long the consequences can be irreversible."

Responding to the report, the Department of Health (DoH) said: "Our waiting lists are unacceptable, and the need to transform services on a sustainable basis is paramount.

"These figures show the scale of the waiting list crisis and demonstrate the need for multi-year funding."

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Contributors to this report said prolonged waits not only impair children's mental and physical development, but also have a detrimental impact on their education and overall wellbeing.

The college has also examined long waits for children in Wales and Scotland but data showed Northern Ireland was in a worse position.

Scotland and Wales saw minor reductions to outpatient waiting times in 2023, while waiting times in Northern Ireland continued to grow.

Commissioner for Children and Young People NI Chris Quinn described the findings as concerning.

"Behind each statistic are children who are facing barriers and delays in treatment and care," he said.

Chris Quinn expressed concern over the report's findings

The report said feedback from children and families illustrated their worry and discontent with the impact of long waits.

It also makes key policy recommendations:

• Taking a "whole child" approach to service configuration, starting with a full review of the child health system to ensure health and social care reform is based on need and improving integration. It added that attention should be paid to reducing poverty and health inequalities;

• Stronger workforce planning, including a bespoke integrated whole child health workforce strategy;

• Better data collection as the current limited data remains a barrier to understanding need and appropriate commissioning. The DoH, Public Health Agency and HSC Trusts should improve the collection, sharing and utilisation of child health data;

The report said the wider child health workforce including paediatricians are working "incredibly hard to provide the highest standard of care" but the continued growing waiting lists and missed targets indicated a need to "configure services differently".

The RCPCH also called on all political parties to lay out their plans for the prioritisation of children's services before the next general election.

Waiting lists 'key priority'

However, the report does not provide a full, up-to-date picture because data from the South Eastern Health Trust is not available.

The trust began its transition to the electronic patient record system 'Encompass' last November.

The DoH added the Child Health Partnership and the recently established Programme Board are currently working to rebuild and reconfigure services following the pandemic.

"Tackling lengthy waiting times is a key priority," a statement said.

"It is, undoubtedly a long-term issue that requires sustainable and recurrent funding, workforce development and system wide transformation.

Analysis: Action and leadership needed for change

This report is a grim wake up call.

To hear children described as an afterthought is a terrible indictment of our system.

Children can't afford to wait.

Any delays in treating speech, hearing and movement will affect their adult life - the authors say it is "nothing short of a catastrophe".

The pandemic and the lack of local government here is only partly to blame.

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

The solution requires action, identifying failures and for the Executive to take ownership when things go wrong.

Northern Ireland cannot indefinitely argue that things can't change or be fixed as there is no money.

Decisions need to be taken, appointments made and leadership shown.

In one small example, a paediatric doctor told me what would have provided hope to both children and staff was a Stormont minister agreeing to turn up for the launch of this report.

At the time of writing that is not expected to happen.