£80m ringfenced for most critical hospital waiting lists

More money has been announced to tackle Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists.

According to the health minister, £80m will be ringfenced to help reduce the longest and most critical waiting times over the next 12 months.

It forms part of the executive's programme for government commitment to cut health red flag and critical waiting lists.

"Reducing waiting times and improving access to care are among my sharpest areas of focus as health minister and central to the executive's programme for government commitment to do what matters most for people across Northern Ireland, " said Mike Nesbitt.

Details of how the funding will be allocated across health and social care services in 2026/27 to support waiting list reductions will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

BBC News NI understands that the money is part of the draft budget. While it hasn't been agreed by the political parties, there was consensus to push this money through to help those on waiting lists.

Northern Ireland hospital waiting lists remain at record highs, with over 500,000 patients awaiting consultant appointments and over 55% waiting longer than a year.

Last July, and for the first time, the minister appointed a health professional to directly tackle the problem.

At the time Professor Mark Taylor, a senior surgeon, acknowledged it would be a "long-term challenge" but said he would work "tirelessly" with his health service colleagues to turn things around.

This latest funding initiative was made during a visit to the Mater Hospital's Elective Overnight Stay Centre in Belfast.

Nesbitt said that "real progress is being made and waiting lists in time critical and red flag areas are falling, capacity is increasing, and staff are delivering in exceptionally difficult circumstances".

Nesbitt said work to date had helped in eliminating waits of more than four years for procedures such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, colonoscopy and tonsillectomy and in hernia surgery.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Nesbitt added that the new money would be used to build on the "fantastic" progress made possible by £50m of waiting list-specific funding in 2025.

"When I spoke to executive colleagues, I said that, without a budget we were losing momentum, and the danger would be that the public might write us off as a one-year wonder."

Nesbitt said he then successfully made a pitch to his executive partners that he intended to "spend a lot of money on waiting lists, so why wait? Why not authorise me to start spending £80m immediately?"

This, he said, resulted in his department being allocated the money.

Northern Ireland waiting lists remain at record highs, with over 500,000 patients awaiting consultant appointments and over 55% waiting longer than a year to be seen.

"It will take about five years, we reckon, to get the waiting lists down to where they should be," said Nesbitt.

Though talk around the funding has focused on how it will be used to tackle waiting lists, Nesbitt said it will also be used to "increase capacity in health and social care".

He did not provide a breakdown of how the money will be spent.

Nesbitt said the funding will focus on reducing "shockingly long" out-patient waiting lists.

"People can expect in the coming weeks to start getting appointments."

He also said he plans to use the funding in "creative" ways, including to establish a "24/7 thrombectomy stroke service".

"It means anything up to about 160 people who have strokes outside the opening hours of the current service may be able to leave hospital on the same day as their stroke... and that's just a fabulous thing."