Waiting lists plan must show results says Colin McGrath MLA
SDLP Opposition Health Spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has welcomed a commitment from the Health Minister to provide clear results of his plan to tackle health waiting lists.
South Down MLA Mr McGrath said: “Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has confirmed he will publish a monthly report on the effectiveness of the plan.
“Any investment in our health service is to be welcomed. Our waiting lists are among the worst in Europe, with some people spending years waiting for much-needed treatment with terrible consequences for their physical and mental health.
“In that context this £50m must be welcomed, but it will take a considerably larger sum and full health service transformation to tackle the underlying causes for these long waiting lists.
“The only way we can judge the success or failure of this plan is through results.
“We cannot continue to rely on outside health providers over whom we have no control and this plan also wishes to re-purpose existing staff at a time when many are already at the point of burn out and trusts are being asked to make further savings.
“While the return of cross-border healthcare is welcome and a long-standing ask of the SDLP, we are also concerned that people are being asked to pay upfront and then be reimbursed.
“Nobody’s access to healthcare should depend on how much money they have.
“To complicate matters, with the new encompass system now in place we cannot even access up to date figures of waiting times, waiting lists or even the number of beds in the system.
“In the Assembly today I asked the Minister to urgently address this and I welcome his recognition of the existing issues.
“It’s not enough to make repeated commitments to addressing the waiting lists crisis – we need to see the results.”
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Chambers welcomes departmental investment plan to tackle hospital waiting lists
UUP Health spokesperson Alan Chambers MLA has said: “I welcome the timely Oral Statement made to the Assembly today by the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt MLA, on his departmental investment plan to tackle hospital waiting lists.
“The statement will also be hugely welcomed by those across Northern Ireland who are currently on a waiting list and will offer hope to those who are in pain.
“The Minister used the word ‘urgency’ in his statement and in response to a question from me to give a commitment that his department is approaching, and will continue to approach, this issue with the urgency that patients and staff, and particularly himself will want to see, he give a firm commitment that would be the case.
“I also welcome the reintroduction of the previously successful reimbursement scheme with an initial budget of £10m to commence in June this year. T
:his scheme will allow patients to recover the cost of their procedure if it had been carried out by the local HSC system. It will initially apply to treatment in the Republic of Ireland but will be extended in a second phase to treatment obtained in European Union countries.
“I agree with the Minister that there is a long journey ahead, probably five years, to get waiting list times to an acceptable level.
“If the Executive and the Assembly continue to support his plans, I am confident that the Minister’s targets will be achieved.
“It is obvious that he is totally committed and personally invested in improving the current unacceptable waiting times that have been the out-working of over a decade of under-investment and reduction of funding in our vital health services.”
