§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord President on 1 December (WA 5) and in view of the underspend of £111.6 million by the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, what steps the department is taking to reduce hospital operation waiting lists. [HL326]
§ Baroness AmosThe underspend in 2003–04 mainly reflected slippages in both the capital investment programme and executive programme fund projects. These slippages have been honoured in 2004–05 to continue or complete the relevant projects or schemes and the money allocated for them has been fully used.
A determined programme of action is in place to reduce hospital waiting lists and waiting times across Northern Ireland. This has resulted in 95 per cent of patients receiving their treatment within 12 months and almost 75 per cent within three months. Moreover, inpatient and day-case waiting lists have fallen by 10,000 over the past two years. A regional steering group has been established to oversee a significant regional programme of work to further reduce waiting times. Targets have been set to ensure that by 31 March 2005, other than in exceptional circumstances, no patient is waiting for in-patient or day-case treatment for more than 18 months, and by March 2006, no longer than 15 months. An additional £8.5 million was allocated in 2004–05 to support this work.