Inadequate budget continues to present challenge to waiting times

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has said that budget constraints continue to present trusts with a significant challenge in reducing hospital waiting times.

The Minister was speaking as validated figures were published which showed that, at the end of December 2009, the number of patients waiting over nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment was 15,716. This represents an increase on the previous quarter when the figure was 4,559.

The figures also showed that, at the end of December, there were 6,010 patients waiting longer than 13 weeks for surgery, compared to 2,975 in the previous quarter.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said: "This further rise in waiting times is disappointing. However, the vast majority of patients continue to receive their care and treatment within a reasonable period. It is important to bear in mind that, overall, hospital waiting times have significantly improved in recent years and are unrecognisable compared to 2005, when under Direct Rule patients had to endure unacceptably long waits.”

The Minister continued: “In order to ensure that the cost of protecting the Northern Ireland public from Swine Flu could be met from the existing Health and Social Care budget, Trusts had to suspend waiting list work during the summer until I received clarity on the Departmental budget. These latest waiting time figures refer to the quarter ending December 2009 and I only received confirmation of the budget in October.”

The Minister said that health and social care staff must continue to focus their efforts to reduce hospital waiting times. He said: "I know that staff are committed to providing the best quality health care to patients and will continue to make every effort to make up lost ground.

"However, the health and social care service continues to operate under severe strain, trying to respond to significant increases in demand for services within the limited funding available. In the past two years alone, there has been an increase of some 20% demand for hospital services, yet our funding has only increased by 0.5% in real terms, the lowest rise in living memory."

Putting this into context, the Minister said the increase in demand in the first nine months of 2009-10 was equal to around 35,000 additional first outpatient appointments and 9,000 more inpatient and daycase procedures.

Michael McGimpsey continued: "I want to thank hospital staff for their efforts in working hard to meet this growing demand and I acknowledge that this presents a major challenge in the current financial climate. However, I still expect trusts to ensure that targets are met for 2009-10.”

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