AQW 6040/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 09/02/2024
Answered On Date: 27/02/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health whether he will ensure his Department publishes up to date waiting times for red-flagged breast clinic referrals.

Answer:

As part of the Cancer Waiting Times publications which are released quarterly by the Department, the length of wait from an urgent GP referral for suspect breast cancer to first appointment with a breast cancer specialist is monitored and reported on in figure 3 and table 5. The most recent publication was published on 11th January 2024. This can be found at the following link:

Northern Ireland waiting time statistics: cancer waiting times July - September 2023 | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk).

The number of referrals received by HSC Trusts for suspect breast cancer has been temporarily removed from this publication due to data quality issues currently under review and it is hoped that this data will be available in the next release of this publication on Thursday 28th March 2024.