Debate contribution: Waiting Lists: Action Plan

Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on 20 February 2024.

MLA

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

20 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Waiting Lists: Action Plan

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4380714

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I imagine that everyone in the Chamber knows someone who is waiting on a health procedure, whether they are a family member, a friend or a colleague. We have all seen people waiting for an interminable time for operations that they should be able to expect in a matter of months. I have lost count of the number of constituents whom I have met who are wrecked with stress and anxiety from waiting for years on an appointment that could be life-changing but which feels like it may never arrive. Last week, we debated the priority that is given to women's health. One area of waiting lists is for gynae services. Responding to a survey that I delivered last year on women's experience of accessing care, a woman told me about her long wait. She said:

“It’s taken me almost four years to get some form of outcome even though I still believe they have misdiagnosed me. I am worse now than when they tested me but I am told a long waiting list is ahead again”.

That is a moral outrage in 2024. It is a fundamental failure of government.

I welcome the urgency of the motion, but, with the greatest respect, never mind six weeks from now, we should have been here to deliver two years ago. The consequence of the latest collapse and, indeed, the one before it, has been that we have let more people wait in agony in a two-tier system, where only those who can afford to be seen get through the door. Those are the human consequences of constant collapse. It is yet another reason — in case we need any more — why we should commit to never collapsing this place again. The transformation of our health service will take time and much longer than it could have otherwise taken. In the meantime, we need to follow what works, and that includes restoring the cross-border healthcare directive. We are one island, and we all know that health problems do not stop at borders. Brexit was a serious blow to our health service, not only because it removed the cross-border healthcare directive but because, under freedom of movement, we had the ultimate cross-border healthcare directive for our medical professionals. That is something that we all feel and all regret, and it has added to the waiting times. The very least that we can have is an arrangement again with our closest neighbours. That is a sensible and practical step that could make a real difference to people across our communities. I know that it has served many of my constituents really well.

Thank you. I absolutely agree with the Member. It is self-sabotage. It is unbelievable that any Minister would take that tone and direction when the health service is in complete disarray due to the Tory Government. That is all I can say. In the Western Trust alone, more than 700 patients benefited from the Republic of Ireland reimbursement scheme. Restoring it is common sense, and I hope that Members from across the Chamber will support that. Of course, that is just one measure that we can take while we grapple with the longer-term transformation of our health service so that we can bring down waiting lists once and for all. It will not solve the crisis overnight, which is the product of decades of underfunding, political collapse, dysfunction and poor accountability, but it will make a difference to some patients. The motion rightly draws attention to regional disparities in access to our health service. It is true to say that there are huge imbalances in our health outcomes. Although the crisis affects almost everyone, it does not affect everyone equally. In recent years, the figures have shown that male life expectancy has declined in the most deprived areas of Belfast and Derry. In the Western Trust, male life expectancy is almost seven years lower than the trust average, and 24 of our health outcomes are worse than the Northern Ireland average. In my city and region, we have a crisis of addiction and poor mental health, driven by poverty and the failure of government to address that poverty. It appears that our health service provision has been regionally blind, failing to step in to address disadvantage. No weighted deprivation formula has been apparent, and that has fuelled the poor health outcomes. We need a different approach that prioritises disadvantage and directs investment where it is most required.

I want to get this finished, sorry. I hope that the motion is supported across the House and, more importantly, that it leads to change for patients who are desperately in need. Finally, I thank our healthcare workers across the Province who do amazing work in difficult circumstances. I call out to our community and voluntary sector, which has lost funding over the years, for stepping in.

It also deserves our grateful thanks.

819 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:40 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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