AQW 19307/11-15

Mr Roy Beggs
Ulster Unionist Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 01/02/2013
Answered On Date: 12/02/2013
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to detail, for each Health and Social Care Trust, the (i) target waiting time; and (ii) actual waiting time for all procedures with a current waiting list of greater than eight weeks

Answer:

(i) I have set a challenging waiting time target for elective care inpatient/daycase treatment that covers all clinical specialties. This is:

From April 2012, at least 50% of inpatients and daycases are treated within 13 weeks with no one waiting longer than 36 weeks; increasing to 60% by March 2013, and no patient waits longer than 30 weeks for treatment.

(ii) My Department publishes inpatient waiting time figures on a quarterly basis in the Northern Ireland Waiting Time publication, on the basis of clinical specialty, and not procedure type. The latest data published relate to the position at 30th September 2012 and can be found at the following link:

http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/ni_inpatient_waiting_list_bulletin_september_12.pdf

I refer you to Table 2a, which details the number of people waiting for admission by weeks waiting, broken down by specialty.

Information on the waiting times for specific procedures are available on request, but are not routinely published given the volume of procedure types that may be carried out, which at 30th September 2012 totalled nearly 2,000.