AQW 27598/22-27


Mrs Diane Dodds
Democratic Unionist Party
Upper Bann


Tabled Date: 22/05/2025
Answered On Date: 18/08/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of patients who have been waiting for an outpatient appointment in plastic surgery for more than (i) four years; (ii) eight years; and (iii) ten years, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.


Answer:
The numbers of patients who have been waiting more than (i) four years; (ii) eight years; and (iii) ten years, for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in the Plastic Surgery and the Paediatric Plastic Surgery specialties at quarter ending March 2025, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust, are given in Table 1 which follows.
Table 1. Numbers of patients waiting more than four, eight and ten years on outpatient plastic surgery waiting lists at quarter end March 2025 by HSC Trust 1, 2.
HSC Trust
Wait
Number of patients waiting 3
more than 4 years
more than 8 years
more than 10 years
Belfast
Plastic Surgery
0
0
0
South Eastern
Plastic Surgery
2,408
0
0
Belfast
Paediatric Plastic Surgery
3
0
0
South Eastern
Paediatric Plastic Surgery
0
0
0
Source: Department of Health Hospital Waits Information Branch, Outpatient Waiting Times Dataset.
Notes:
1 Data sourced from the encompass system. The encompass specialty classification differs from, and is not directly comparable to, the legacy (pre-encompass) data sources.
2 There were no patients waiting under the Plastic Surgery or Paediatric Plastic Surgery specialties in the Southern or Western HSC Trusts. And while the relatively recent transition of Northern HSC Trust to encompass means that not all of the data for this Trust for quarter ending March 2025 are currently available, the Plastic Surgery and Paediatric Plastic Surgery specialties have not been provided by this Trust to date.
3 The figures above refer to the number of patients waiting for a first consultantled Plastic Surgery or Paediatric Plastic Surgery outpatient appointment as at the reporting date. They do not indicate completed waiting times or expected future waiting times.