Report on Review of Waiting Times

review-of-waiting-times-report.pdf (6.58 mb)

Background to the Review

Long waiting times for elective care has been an issue of concern for the public, the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, and Assembly committees for more than a decade. In October 2013, the Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety agreed that the subject of waiting times for elective care would be one of its strategic priorities for the 2013/2014 Assembly session.

The statistics show that the total number of people waiting for elective care has substantially increased since the mid 1990s. Improvements were made in the mid - 2000s, however, the majority of these gains were lost within a couple of years.

Since the start of the Assembly mandate in 2011, the Department has submitted bids at nearly every monitoring round for money to reduce the waiting times for elective care. Some of this money is to pay for more in-house provision, while some is used to pay private sector providers to treat health service patients. A significant number of the bids have been met since 2011, indicating that reducing waiting times is of major importance to both the Department, and the Executive.

Given this context, the Committee believed that it would be timely and relevantto carry out a review of the Department’s approach to managing waiting timesfor elective care.

Click here to download the full report.