AQW 6344/16-21 Written question to the Minister of Health
To ask the Minister of Health for a breakdown of the waiting times for audiology services by referral to assessment; and assessment to treatment.
Asked by Kellie Armstrong MLA on 27 October 2016
- Answered
- Written
- After due date
- Tabled
- 27 October 2016
- Answer due by
- 11 November 2016
- Answered
- 15 December 201649 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Health
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The 2015/16 Ministerial diagnostic waiting time target states that by March 2017, 75% of patients should wait no longer than 9 weeks for a diagnostic test, with no patient waiting longer than 26 weeks.
I am firmly of the view that the current waiting lists are unacceptably long. However, unless we tackle the root causes this will remain the case, as we have a 20th century model delivering services for a 21st century population. This is having an increasingly negative impact on the quality and experience of care. The long term solution is the transformation of our health and social care system as outlined in Delivering Together.
It is only in transforming the health and social care system and by implementing new models of care that we will be able to alleviate the pressures on our health and social care services, sustain improvements in waiting times and deliver better outcomes for patients.
That said, I would pay tribute to the staff across the Health & social care sector. Notwithstanding the structural issues, they continue to work incredibly hard and on average deliver 9,000 outpatient appointments, 2,600 inpatient/day case procedures and 31,000 diagnostic tests per week.
The latest information available on the number of patients waiting for a diagnostic pure tone audiometry test can be found in Table 1 below.
Table 1. Number of patients waiting for a diagnostic pure tone audiometry test, by weeks waiting, at 30th June 2016.
| 0-6 Weeks | >6-9 Weeks | >9-13 Weeks | >13-21 Weeks | >21-26 Weeks | >26 Weeks | Total Waiting | |
| Pure tone audiometry | 1,724 | 659 | 493 | 693 | 341 | 43 | 3,953 |
Source: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/hs-niwts-diagnostc-waiting-times-q1-16-17.pdf
Information on completed waits for people waiting for a hearing aid is collected by the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB). The latest available information can be found in Table 2 below.
Table 2. Completed Waits – Length of time waiting for a hearing aid following assessment (September 2016).
| 0-3 Weeks | >3-6 Weeks | >6-9 Weeks | >9-13 Weeks | >13 Weeks | Total Completed Waits |
| 315 | 259 | 289 | 289 | 542 | 1,694 |
Source: Health and Social Care Board