Health Service: new multi-million pound plan to sort out Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists

A new package of initiatives to tackle hospital care backlogs in Northern Ireland, was unveiled today (Tuesday).

An initial £10m is to invested in the plan which includes a Waiting List Reimbursement scheme - allowing patients to claim back costs when they receive treatment elsewhere.

Beginning in June 2025, the scheme will apply to procedures obtained in the Republic and will subsequently be extended to the rest of the European Union.

It will be available to patients waiting two years or more on a hospital treatment waiting list in NI. Patients will require prior approval from the Department of Health before accessing the scheme.

Other initiatives for the year ahead involve:

• Targeting long waits – four years or more – including hip, knee and other orthopaedic treatments; tonsillectomies; hernia treatment; gallbladder removal (lap choles) and colonoscopy.

• Significantly reducing waiting lists for children requiring specialist procedures such as peg tubes, scopes and scoliosis surgery, as well as waiting times for women waiting on gynaecology mesh removal procedures

• Partnership arrangements with independent sector providers to clear outpatient waits of four years plus in Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics; General Surgery; Gynaecology, ENT and other specialties.

• £10m in funding for mega clinics for an estimated 20,000 additional patients. Mega clinics provide groups of patients with a ‘one stop shop’ which can involve, for example, surgical review and anaesthetic preoperative assessment in a single appointment.

• Expansion of red flag and time critical capacity across a range of specialties, including: Endoscopy; Diagnostic Imaging (eg MRI and CT); Urology, Breast Surgery; Dermatology; Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy and Cardiac Surgery.

• Expansion of Primary Care Elective Service capacity in dermatology, minor surgery, and gynaecology. It is estimated that £2.9m would allow the service to see and treat approximately 16,500 patients in 2025/26.

• Partnership working with the voluntary sector to deliver a £500,000 per year Waiting Well Programme to help and support those waiting for treatment and a £1m per year Cancer Charities Programme to deliver cancer work in the community to reduce pressures on statutory services.

The Health Minister said: “These planned investments reflect the Executive’s ringfencing of up to £215m in this year’s Health budget for waiting list activities – in line with the finalised Programme for Government.

“This breaks down into £85m for red flag and time critical care; £80m for building up capacity to address the long-standing mismatch with demand; and up to £50m to start tackling the backlog in care.

“Investment at this level will need to be sustained for at least five years to bring hospital waiting times down to acceptable levels. We are only at the foothills of what will be a long uphill trek.

“I will provide more details on the different initiatives later this month with publication of an implementation plan for my Department’s Elective Care Framework.”

The Minister continued: “Only £50m of the ringfenced £215m total has involved additional monies for my Department.

“The initiatives being announced today are in large part being funded by monies diverted from my core budget for day to day services. That will have unavoidable consequences for wider health and social care provision.

“In the coming weeks, my Department will publish detailed plans and assessments on the financial pressures this year and the measures that will be needed in both the short and medium terms.”