Member's statement: Health: Waiting Times and Pay
Member's statement by Mrs Diane Dodds on .
- MLA
- Mrs Diane Dodds
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 February 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Health: Waiting Times and Pay
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5369000
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Over the last number of weeks, we have had considerable mention in the press about waiting times in our emergency departments, with the median waiting time being 13 hours and 36 minutes. In Causeway Hospital in the month of January, the longest waiting time for a handover from the ambulance to the ED was over 19 hours . The list for first-time consultant appointments in Northern Ireland has now reached 540,000, with those people waiting many years. We need to recognise the progress on the waiting lists for scopes and the reduction in long-term waits, but our cancer waiting lists are the longest and have the worst outcomes in the whole of the United Kingdom. Only 6% of women who are referred for breast cancer investigations will see a consultant within the 14-day target. It therefore came as a considerable surprise to me that the Minister should then prioritise the pay of the chief executives of the trusts. The public will be perplexed that the Minister has chosen to do that, particularly in light of the fact that he has still not fulfilled his promise to implement the real living wage for domiciliary care workers. That is the huge contrast that exists on the issue of pay. The salaries that were signed off by the Minister will see the pay of those on the lowest rung of the executive pay scale exceed £100,000 per year, with those on the highest rung receiving almost a quarter of a million pounds per year. Those salaries will dwarf the salaries of our Prime Minister, First Ministers, judges and senior clinicians. That raises serious questions, particularly when the morale of front-line staff in hospitals is so low and people are working so hard to make sure that our health service functions. Most galling of all is the fact that some of those who will get the automatic pay increase right up to 2029, will have been responsible for the debacle with the new maternity hospital and the new children's hospital, and the fact that we will possibly wait four and a half years before the former can be entered or used in any substantial way.
361 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.82 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.12 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.06 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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