AQW 38477/22-27

Mr Danny Donnelly
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 19/01/2026
Answered On Date: 11/02/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, in relation to the 17 December 2025 article released by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that there were 1,122 deaths associated with long Emergency Department waits in 2024. (i) to detail any steps that are being taken to monitor and reduce mortality linked to these prolonged waits; and (ii) whether he will provide the number of deaths associated with long Emergency Department waits for 2025.

Answer:

I refer the Member to my previous response to AQW 33053/22-27 and AQW 35304/2227.

I recognise the serious concerns raised in the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) article of 17 December 2025 regarding mortality associated with long emergency department (ED) waits. Reducing delays for patients remains a key priority for my Department, and we continue to work closely with Health and Social Care Trusts, the RCEM and other professional bodies to improve patient flow and enhance safety across the unscheduled care pathway.

With regard to the steps being taken to monitor and reduce mortality linked to prolonged ED waits, my Department is engaged with the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Emergency Medicine team and is aware of the Standard Mortality Ratio methodology used by RCEM to estimate excess deaths associated with ED stays of 12 hours or longer prior to admission. As outlined previously, establishing direct causality between prolonged waits and individual patient outcomes is highly complex and would require more detailed, patient-level information than is currently available.

Nonetheless, my Department continues to monitor a range of indicators related to ED performance, patient flow and safety including crowding, ambulance handover times, time to initial assessment, and delays in admission. These measures enable Trusts to identify and respond to risks associated with extended waits.

A wide programme of work is underway to reduce delays in EDs and thereby mitigate associated risks. This includes:

expanding urgent care centres and minor injury units to provide safe and timely alternatives to ED attendance;

the continued roll-out of Phone First services to support patients in accessing the most appropriate pathway;

targeted actions to improve ambulance handover processes outside EDs; and,

strengthening senior decision-making capacity, including the appointment of an additional 21 emergency medicine consultants over the past year, developed in collaboration with RCEM and Trusts.

These actions form part of a system-wide approach to improve flow throughout hospitals, reduce congestion in EDs and support the timely delivery of safe and effective care.

With regard to whether my Department will provide the number of deaths associated with long ED waits for 2025, as stated previously, my Department does not hold specific data on the number of deaths associated with long waits in EDs, nor does it routinely collect the detailed information required to calculate excess mortality using the Standard Mortality Ratio approach. While my Department continues to consider the methodologies used elsewhere, such analyses require a level of granularity in patient tracking and outcome attribution that is not currently available within our systems.

My Department will continue to work with Trusts, GIRFT and professional bodies to strengthen data quality and to identify opportunities to improve monitoring and analysis as part of ongoing service improvement.