Northern Ireland publishes update on waiting list progress following £700m roadmap in 2021

Health Minister Robin Swann has provided an interim update on actions to tackle Northern Ireland’s hospital waiting lists, which he described as “dire” last year and pledged to fix them.

Entitled ‘Elective Care Framework: Restart, Recovery and Redesign’, the report outlines the progress that has been made in the last six months on the Elective Care Framework, which is the country’s blueprint for tackling hospital waiting times.

Although health and social care services continue to be impacted by the continuing pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report has highlighted that significant progress has been made in some areas.

The key focus of the Elective Care Framework, published in 2021, was to take forward a range of actions, 55 in total, which aim to improve service delivery across the Health and Social Care sector, and reduce the significant backlog of patients waiting for elective care services in Northern Ireland.

Robin said: “In a relatively short period of time we have been able to make good progress and made some very significant developments that not only have the potential to reduce the number of people on our waiting lists, but also improve how services are delivered.

“We must remember that our waiting lists were dire before the pandemic and COVID has only served to worsen the situation. Therefore, it is only through a continuous and sustained focus on ensuring effective implementation of all these arrangements that improvements will be secured.”

The report outlines a number of initiatives that have been introduced where the extent of the impact is already clear. For other actions, the report notes that the impact will be easier to assess in the longer term once processes have been embedded.

Since reinstating the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive in July 2021, the report underlines, there have been 1,864 applications to the scheme, with 1,470 of these being approved.

The directive allows patients to seek and pay for routinely commissioned treatment in the private sector in ROI and have the costs, up to the cost of the treatment to the HSC in Northern Ireland, reimbursed. This has the potential to reduce waiting lists in Northern Ireland without any increase in costs.

“This is just the beginning of a journey to tackle the lengthy waiting lists for elective services in Northern Ireland but I want to recognise the contribution and commitment of our healthcare teams who have made significant strides in the last six months,” Robert concluded.

“We know that we have a huge mountain to climb and that substantial investment is required but together with Ministerial and Assembly colleagues we must do everything in our power to address this issue for people in Northern Ireland.”

The full report is available on the Department of Health website.

Robert said there is intention to publish a further report after the first full year of implementation.