AQW 21400/22-27


Mr Andrew McMurray
Alliance Party
South Down


Tabled Date: 27/01/2025
Answered On Date: 11/02/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for his assessment of why the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust scored worst on urgent referral waiting time targets for 11 out of 12 months between October 2023 and September 2024, with between 93.9 per cent and 100 per cent of patients waiting more than 14 days to be seen.


Answer:
NI waiting time targets state that all urgent breast cancer referrals should be seen within 14 days. In the quarter ending September 2024, the percentage of patients seen within 14 days in all five HSC Trusts is 30.0% ranging from 5.2% (South Eastern HSC Trust) and 99.7% (Western HSC Trust). The member for South Down is correct that South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust has had the lowest performance against this target between October 2023 and September 2024 however, many Trusts are similarly challenged.
Poor performance across the region is impacted by ongoing consultant vacancies in surgery and radiology and demand capacity gaps. Recruitment challenges are due to local and UK shortages. South Eastern HSC Trust has been particularly impacted by vacancies, sickness and maternity leave of consultant surgeons and radiologists during this period.
Another factor impacting the poor performance in South Eastern HSC Trust during this period is the implementation of Encompass in November 2023. The Trust was the first to ‘go live’ with Encompass which resulted in an expected reduction of activity due to the downturn of clinics in the lead up to go-live and stabilisation of service post go-live.
My Department continues to work with all Trusts to reduce the current waiting time for breast cancer assessment. During this period non-recurrent funding was allocated to Trusts to support additional waiting list initiative work, using both inhouse and independent sector capacity. However, given the demand and staffing gaps across the region, securing this capacity can be challenging and some Trusts have been more successful than others in sourcing additional capacity.
Further information in relation to actions underway by my Department to address the performance of the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust is detailed in my answer to your AQW 21398/22-27 for response on 11 February 2025.