NI counts cost of capacity gap

The Northern Ireland Department of Health said the funding would be required to ensure no-one waited more than 52 weeks for a first outpatient appointment or inpatient/day case treatment and no more than 26 weeks for a diagnostics appointment.

The commitment has not been met, though an additional £13m has been made available through the financial year for elective patients with the highest clinical priority, as well as those waiting the longest. It is expected that 25,000 patients will benefit overall.

In an update on efforts to tackle the long elective waiting lists, the Department said that before 2014/15 there had been significant improvements in waiting times. This had been due to short-term funding, typically of around £80m each year, for additional activity.

But rising demand and limited funding since then, had led to longer waiting times. It said elective demand currently exceeds capacity by 60,000 assessments and 35,000 treatments.

The document outlined plans to reduce waiting times by opening a small number of elective surgery centres for day cases. These should be available by December 2020.

The Democratic Unionist Party’s confidence and supply agreement with the Conservative government should release a £200m transformation fund over the next two years. The report said this funding must be invested in the transformation of elective care, ensuring they are fit for the future, rather than just addressing current problems.

As well as assessing the funding needed to achieve current waiting time commitments, the document also outlines transformation that is already happening at the front line, such as dermatology photo triage and more minor surgery taking place in primary care.