'Long Way To Go' On A&E Waiting Times

An Alliance Party MLA has said there is still "a long way to go" in terms of progress on Emergency Department waiting times, following the most recent quarterly statistics.

The Department of Health (DoH) admitted yesterday, Tuesday 30 April, that EDs in Northern Ireland remain under serious pressures, with over 200,000 people attending in the first three months of 2019, a 6.2% increase on last year.

South Belfast MLA Paula Bradshaw commended staff for their work in "extraordinarily difficult conditions", but said more reform is needed.

"In order to bring down waiting times significantly, we need to proceed with the transformation of health and social care to improve access to the healthcare system in the first place and remove pressure from A&E.

"We also need, as a matter of urgency, to address pay and other workforce planning issues in the sector, as too much money is being taken up in paying agencies to provide staff rather than paying directly employed staff adequately and allocating money to proper resourcing.

"We have a review underway but this is a piecemeal response when we need an overall strategy to transform patient access and pathways through the health service. The forthcoming talks process should see this prioritised, as it affects everyone in Northern Ireland," Ms Bradshaw concluded.



(JG/CM)