AQW 49237/22-27

Mr David Honeyford
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 22/06/2026
Answered On Date: 15/07/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of people on the waiting list for a PET scan in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, in each of the last two years, broken down by month.

Answer:

The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust provides the regional PET CT imaging service for Northern Ireland. As such, it maintains a single waiting list for all referrals to this service, regardless of the referring Health and Social Care Trust.

The waiting list is not categorised by referral source, and it is therefore not possible to identify or extract a subset of patients specifically referred from the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust.

However, overall waiting list figures for patients awaiting a PET scan across Northern Ireland are available for the period April 2025 to June 2026 and are presented below on a monthly basis. Data for the period June 2024 to March 2025 were not routinely captured in a reportable format due to system changes, including the implementation of Encompass. There are also isolated gaps within this period, including March 2026, where data is unavailable as it was not routinely extracted at that time.

Month	Patients Awaiting PET Scan
April 2025	607
May 2025	616
June 2025	640
July 2025	668
August 2025	674
September 2025	680
October 2025	675
November 2025	671
December 2025	629
January 2026	669
February 2026	649
March 2026	Not available
April 2026	617
May 2026	601
June 2026	566