Latest waiting list data for NI show fundamental flaws in the running of our NHS 

30th December 2025

The latest data from the NI Statistics and Research Agency show that a record number of patients in Northern Ireland are now waiting to see a hospital consultant for the first time with some now forced to wait almost six years. At the end of September 542,451 patients were waiting to see a consultant at NI hospitals.

The Workers Party has been campaigning for decades against the changes and the cuts to services that have had a detrimental impact on those most in need of treatment. The Minister continues to say that the reimbursement scheme will help those on waiting lists because it has now been extended to cover access to treatment in other parts of Europe not just the South of Ireland. The minister and his officials don’t seem to realise that hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland who are waiting for treatment are living through a cost-of-living crisis which puts the scheme well beyond their reach. People have died while waiting for treatment and this should serve as a wake-up call.

The fact that people can be on waiting lists for up to ten years without treatment is clear evidence that we need a fundamental restructuring of how the waiting lists are prioritised. This must be avoidable as must the rush to the private sector, which depletes resources within the health service both financial and human. Our NHS trained doctors and nurses are spending as much time in the private sector as they do in the health service and this needs to stop.

In addition to continued sectarian division in housing and schooling, Northern Ireland has the highest levels of poverty, multiple deprivations, and health inequalities within these islands and the Minister and the Executive as a whole have no plan to tackle these issues. A closer analysis of the deaths while on waiting lists would probably indicate that they are mostly people from working class areas. Working-class low-income families are bearing the brunt of a political system that is failing our most vulnerable citizens. It is time to reinstate the founding principles of Nye Bevan’s National Health Service.