Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson, Roy Beggs MLA, has said that local hospital waiting times would cause outrage and be a scandal if they occurred anywhere else in the United Kingdom. He spoke out after it was revealed that only 62% of patients at Northern Ireland’s main emergency departments were treated and discharged, or admitted within four hours of their arrival. The official target is 95%.
Roy Beggs said:
“With every passing month our waiting times are growing and set a new record for being the worst in history.
“Last year doctors in England were warning that patients there were dying as a result of slightly deteriorating hospital performance times. Yet latest figures suggest that 79% of patients in England were seen within four hours. It was 89% in Scotland.
“I shudder to think what those same doctors would say about the fact that Northern Ireland’s rate fell to just 62% last month.
“Fortunately we had a very mild December and this winter’s strain of the flu is not nearly as virulent as last year’s. That just serves to demonstrate however, that under the surface the situation may be even worse.
“Time is rapidly running out for the Secretary of State. Health improvements are being delayed because of the lack of political approval by a Minister and Executive. Unless immediate action is taken to restore a local Health Minister, or Direct Rule is introduced, I am concerned that it is only a matter of time before a dangerous crisis engulfs our local health service.”
ENDS
