Claim: The total number of patients waiting for a first appointment with a consultant after referral by their GP in the Northern, Western and Southern Trusts increased by 9.4% between June 2023 and June 2024.
Fact-check: Health waiting lists in Northern Ireland: have consultant backlogs grown by almost 10% in a year? - FactCheckNI
Verdict: official data indicates that, across the northern, southern and western trusts, the number of cases awaiting a first consultant-led appointment in june 2023 was 210,738. by june 2024, this number had risen to 230,530 – an increase of 19,792, or 9.4%. the belfast trust and south eastern trust are currently excluded from a lot of official data, which the department of health says is down to challenges in gathering and comparing information during the staggered rollout of its new electronic records system.
Organisation: FactCheckNI
Author: Unknown
Date published: 2024-10-09T00:00:00