Northern Ireland Inpatient and Day Case Waiting Time Statistics
Accredited Official Statistics
All statistics contained within this publication are Accredited Official Statistics except for statistics relating to Day Case Procedure Centre waiting lists and inpatient activity.
Published by: Information & Analysis
Directorate, Department of Health
Statisticians: Adam Robinson, Thomas Cash & Sally
Pattison
Contact: statistics@health-ni.gov.uk
Reporting Date: 30 September 2024
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Date of Next Publication: 27 February 2025
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Quarterly
On 9 November 2023 the South Eastern Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust launched ‘encompass’ - a new electronic patient record system. The system also went live in Belfast HSC Trust on 6 June 2024 and in Northern HSC Trust on 7 November 2024, and its rollout across the other Trusts will continue in 2025. Consequently, as South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts continue to transition to completely digitised health records, their data have been presented separately.
The data which it has been possible to include for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts, have been presented in a separate ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section and relevant charts, as they are not directly comparable with the other Trusts. These figures, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’, which are a subset of Official Statistics in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. While caution must be exercised when using these figures, they are a meaningful representation of what they measure and are of sufficient quality for publication and use.
Charts and figures presented throughout this report have, with the exception of the previously mentioned ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section and relevant charts, excluded patients waiting for admission to the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts. This is to allow comparisons to be made for the three remaining HSC Trusts over previous years. As such, any Northern Ireland level figures throughout this report only include data for Northern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts.
This statistical release presents information on waiting times for admission for inpatient or day case treatment in Northern Ireland and reports on the performance of the Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts against the draft waiting time target, which states that:
“55% of patients should wait no longer than 13 weeks for inpatient/day case treatment; with no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks.”
Information is detailed on the number of patients waiting and length of time waiting by HSC Trust and specialty. Provisional statistics on inpatient and day case activity are also included.
All of the data contained in this release are published in Excel file format to facilitate secondary analysis. They are available at the following link:
Throughout this report comparisons are made to the previous quarter (30 June 2024), to the same date last year (30 September 2023), and to five years ago (30 September 2019).
Statistics in this report refer to the number of patients waiting and the length of time they had been waiting as at the reporting date. They do not indicate completed waiting times or expected future waiting times.
Key Figures
Inpatient and Day Case Waiting Times
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for both these Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section.
49,311 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case admission to hospitals in the Northern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts on 30 September 2024, 5.3% (2,743) fewer than on 30 June 2024 (52,043), and 19.7% (12,115) less than on 30 September 2023 (61,426).
58.3% of patients were waiting for admission under the General Surgery, Trauma and Orthopaedics (T&O) Surgery or Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialties.
The median waiting time was 51.0 weeks, an increase from 47.6 weeks on 30 June 2024.
The 95 percentile waiting time was 277.9 weeks, an increase from 268.6 weeks on 30 June 2024.
76.2% (37,569) of patients were waiting more than 13 weeks for admission, compared with 75.2% (39,142) on 30 June 2024 and 75.9% (46,607) on 30 September 2023.
49.4% (24,336) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for admission, compared with 48.3% (25,147) on 30 June 2024 and 48.1% (29,536) on 30 September 2023.
Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts
Inpatient and Day Case Waiting Times (South Eastern and Belfast)
The figures provided for the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts
60,195 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case admission to hospitals in the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts on 30 September 2024.
64.6% of patients were waiting for admission under the Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, Ophthalmology or General Surgery specialties.
The median waiting time was 47.0 weeks.
The 95 percentile waiting time was 326 weeks.
74.1% (44,612) of patients were waiting more than 13 weeks for admission.
47.5% (28,599) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for admission.
Inpatient and Day Case Waiting List
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for both these Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section. The previously published time series including all Trusts up to 30 September 2023 has, however, been included in Figure 1 to provide context.
On 30 September 2024, there were 49,311 patients waiting for inpatient or day case admission to hospitals in the Northern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts.
The number of patients waiting has decreased by 5.3% (2,743) from 30 June 2024 and by 19.7% (12,115) from 30 September 2023.
Figure 1: Patients Waiting for an Inpatient or Day Case Admission
30 June 2007 to 30 September 2024
This line chart shows that the number of patients waiting rose steadily from 20,035 on 30 September 2013 to 64,713 on 30 June 2022. It has since decreased to 49,311 on 30 September 2024.
Waiting List by Specialty
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section and Figure 2b.
Note that the specialty classification used in encompass differs significantly from that of the legacy system. Therefore, specialties are no longer comparable with pre-encompass data or what is currently reported for the Northern, Southern and Western Trusts.
On 30 September 2024, the largest waiting lists were for General Surgery (25.3%, 12,485 patients) and T & O Surgery (21.5%, 10,591 patients).
Of specialties with at least 500 patients waiting, the greatest proportionate growth was in the T & O Surgery specialty which increased by 3.8% (406 patients). The greatest proportionate reduction was in the Ophthalmology specialty, with 115.2% (2,067) fewer patients.
Note that Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is a new specialty, compared to the historical Oral Surgery specialty in the chart below.
Figure 2a: Patients Waiting for an Inpatient or Day Case Admission by Specialty
30 September 2024 compared with 30 September 2023
The bar chart above shows the number of patients waiting for admission under each specialty as at 30 September 2024, with markers comparing numbers as at 30 September 2023. Only specialties with at least 500 patients waiting are shown.
The figures provided for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
On 30 September 2024, the largest waiting lists in the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts were for Orthopaedics (23.3%, 13,430 patients) and Gastroenterology (14.9%, 8,939 patients).
Figure 2b: Patients Waiting for an Inpatient or Day Case Admission by Specialty in South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts
30 September 2024
The bar chart above shows the number of patients waiting for admission under the top 15 specialties in the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts as at 30 September 2024. Note that this specialty classification differs from that currently used by the Northern, Southern and Western Trusts.
Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for these Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section.
The median waiting time is the middle value when all patients are ordered by length of time waiting. This is preferred over the mean as an average of waiting times because waiting times tend to be skewed by longer waits and therefore more patients are waiting for less time than the mean.
The 95th percentile waiting time is the waiting time that 95% of patient waiting times are less than. One in twenty patients i.e. 5%, have been waiting longer than this time. The 95th percentile is used as an indication of the range of current waiting times without being distorted by extreme values or the prioritisation of urgent waits.
On 30 September 2024, the median waiting time for all patients was 51.0 weeks and the 95th percentile was 277.9 weeks (approximately 5 years and 18 weeks).
Figure 3: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times
30 June 2007 to 30 September 2024
This line chart shows that the median waiting time increased gradually from 6.7 weeks at 30 September 2014 to 25.9 weeks at 31 March 2020. There was then a sharp increase to 69.1 weeks on 30 June 2021 and since then a gradual decrease to 51.0 weeks on 30 September 2024.
The 95th percentile has increased steadily from 29.0 weeks at 30 September 2014 to 277.9 weeks on 30 September 2024.
Waiting Times by Specialty
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for these Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section and Figure 4b.
There is a large variation in median and 95th percentile waiting times across different specialties. Low medians relative to the 95th percentile can be an indication of large numbers of patients recently joining a list or a greater proportion of urgent patients within a specialty.
Figure 4a: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Time by Specialty
30 September 2024
The bar chart above shows the median and 95th percentile waiting times for specialties where at least 500 patients were waiting for admission on 30 September 2024. The longest median waiting time was 79.4 weeks in the General Surgery specialty.
One in twenty (5%) patients waiting for Urology, ENT, T & O Surgery, General Surgery or General Medicine admissions had been waiting over 5 years.
The figures provided for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
Figure 4b: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times by Specialty in South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts
30 September 2024
The bar chart above shows the median and 95th percentile waiting times for specialties in the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts where at least 500 patients were waiting for admission on 30 September 2024. Please note that this specialty classification differs from that currently used by the Northern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts.
The longest median wait was within the Breast Surgery specialty (243.0 weeks).
One in twenty (5%) patients waiting for Plastic Surgery or Breast Surgery admissions had been waiting over 4 years.
Performance against Targets
Figures in this section do not include the South Eastern or Belfast HSC Trusts. Data for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts’ section.
The draft waiting times target states that 55% of patients should wait no longer than 13 weeks for inpatient/day case treatment; with no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks.
Note that this target was introduced in 2016/17.
Figure 5: Patients Waiting Under 13 Week Target
30 June 2016 to 30 September 2024
The line and stacked bar charts above illustrate the percentage and number of patients waiting less than 13 weeks at the end of each quarter between 30 June 2016 and 30 September 2024.
Across this period the target of 55% of patients waiting less than 13 weeks was not achieved, with the lowest proportion under 13 weeks being 10.7% (5,628 of 52,442 patients) on 30 June 2020.
On 30 September 2024, 23.8% of patients (11,742 of 49,311) were waiting less than 13 weeks, a decrease from 24.1% (14,819 of 61,426) on 30 September 2023 and a decrease from 34.5% (15,581 of 45,205) on 30 September 2019.
Figure 6: Patients Waiting Over 52 Week Target
30 June 2016 to 30 September 2024
The line and stacked bar charts above illustrate the percentage and number of patients waiting over 52 weeks at the end of each quarter between 30 June 2016 and 30 September 2024.
Across this period the target of no patients waiting longer than 52 weeks was not achieved, with the highest proportion over 52 weeks being 59.4% (35,883 of 60,382 patients) at 31 March 2021.
On 30 September 2024, 49.4% of patients (24,336 of 49,311) were waiting longer than 52 weeks, an increase from 48.1% (29,536 of 61,426) on 30 September 2023 and an increase from 22.6% (10,211 of 45,205) on 30 September 2019.
Performance by HSC Trust
Figures in this section for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts have been sourced from encompass and are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
Draft target: 55% of patients should wait no longer than 13 weeks and no patient should wait longer than 52 weeks for inpatient or day case treatment.
Data shown in this section indicates the Health and Social Care Trust responsible for a patient’s care. As Day Case Procedure Centres are a regional service with patient records held in both the legacy and encompass systems, they have been reported separately from HSC Trusts.
Figure 7: Waiting Times by HSC Trust and Day Case Procedure Centres
30 September 2024
The proportionate stacked bar chart above breaks down the length of time patients have been waiting by the HSC Trust responsible for their service.
No Trust met the target to have 55% of patients waiting less than 13 weeks, nor the target to have no patients waiting longer than 52 weeks.
Between 19.3% and 29.4% of patients were waiting less than 13 weeks in the Northern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts and between 37.6% and 58.8% were waiting longer than 52 weeks.
Between 23.6% and 31.9% of patients were waiting less than 13 weeks in the South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts and between 35.4% and 50.4% were waiting longer than 52 weeks.
Inpatient and Day Case Activity
Provisional Statistics
Admissions data are fully validated once per year. Statistics in this section are subject to revision in subsequent releases and do not hold Accredited Official Statistics status.
Fully validated inpatient and day case activity statistics are published annually at the following link:
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/inpatient-and-day-case-activity
Activity figures in this section do not include the Belfast HSC Trust as validated data were not available at the time of publication.
Between 1 July and 30 September 2024 there were 33,381 admissions commissioned by the health service, excluding the Belfast HSC Trust. Of these, 15.0% (4,992) were admitted to independent sector providers commissioned by the health service and the remaining 85.0% (28,389) treated within health service hospitals.
Figure 8: Inpatient and Day Case Admissions Commissioned
Quarter Ending June 2013 to Quarter Ending September 2024
The bar chart above indicates the number of patients admitted within each quarter between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2024. The number of patients being admitted increased steadily from 9,397 in quarter ending June 2020 to 32,869 in quarter ending March 2023, but reduced to 30,683 in quarter ending September 2024. The number of patients admitted in the quarter ending September 2024 is 0.7% (233 patients) lower compared to the quarter ending June 2013.
Data Sources, Quality and Guidance
Data sources
The sources of the data contained in this release are the HSC Trust’s Patient Administration Systems, encompass, the DoH Inpatient Waiting Times Dataset, the Hospital Inpatient System and the DoH IS1 Return.
Inpatient / day case admission
Inpatient and day case waiting list data comprise the number of patients waiting for inpatient and day case admission to hospital.
Inpatient admissions are patients admitted electively with the expectation that they will remain in hospital for at least one night.
Day case admissions are patients admitted electively with the expectation that although they may require supervised recovery, they do not require the use of a hospital bed overnight and will return home as scheduled the same day.
Measurement of waiting times
Statistics in this report refer to the number of patients waiting and the length of time they had been waiting as at the reporting date. They do not indicate completed waiting times or expected future waiting times. Waiting time begins from the date the clinician decided to admit the patient.
Patients who cannot attend or miss their appointment have their waiting time recorded from the date they informed the HSC Trust that they could not attend or the date of the missed appointment.
Patients suspended for medical or social reasons as at the reporting date are not included in the statistics. If re-instated, the period of suspension is excluded from the waiting time.
Time bands relate to the number of completed weeks a patient has been waiting for admission. For example, a patient waiting exactly 6 weeks would be included in the 0-6 week time band and a patient waiting 6 weeks and 1 day would be included in the 6-13 week time band.
Reporting patients against Health and Social Care Trusts
A number of inpatient and day case services may not be provided at a patient’s local HSC Trust and instead are provided as centralised services for Northern Ireland.
Patients are reported against the HSC Trust responsible for the service to which they have been referred.
Day Case Procedure Centres
From February 2019, Day Case Procedure Centres (DPCs) are being introduced to deliver large volumes of non-complex routine surgery.
Patients waiting for specific non-urgent surgical treatments can be referred to a DPC for treatment rather than attend the hospital site they may ordinarily have been referred to.
Patients waiting for admission to a Day Case Procedure Centre are included in these statistics.
As these services are managed on a regional basis, patients are not allocated as waiting at a particular HSC Trust and where a Trust split is used in these statistics, the patients are instead reported separately against Day Case Procedure Centres.
Patients with multiple waits
Some patients will be on more than one waiting list or be on the same waiting list for more than one admission due to having multiple conditions. Such patients are counted more than once depending on how many times they are waiting.
There is a known overlap of patients waiting for diagnostic endoscopies that will be managed as an inpatient/day case admission. These are included in both the inpatient and day case waiting time and diagnostic waiting time figures. Due to the risk of multiple counting, these two sets of data should not be combined to give an estimate of the total number of patients waiting for admission or a diagnostic service.
Patients resident outside Northern Ireland and private patients
Statistics on patients waiting for inpatient and day case admission include patients living outside Northern Ireland and privately funded patients waiting for treatment in Health Service hospitals in Northern Ireland.
Exclusions
Inpatient and day case waiting list figures do not include:
• Patients admitted as emergency cases
• Patients waiting for planned admission i.e. patients given proposed date of admission determined by social or clinical criteria
• Patients undergoing a planned programme of treatment e.g. a series of admissions for chemotherapy
• Patients waiting for admission as a regular day or night attender
• Patients waiting for maternity specialties (except where the intention is to terminate the pregnancy)
• Patients waiting who are currently admitted for another reason
• Patients who are temporarily suspended for medical or social reasons
Inpatient and day case activity
Provisional statistics on inpatient and day case activity are presented to provide contextual information in relation to waiting lists.
Hospital data are sourced from the Hospital Inpatient System and Independent Sector data are provided by the Strategic Planning and Performance Group in the Department of Health.
These data are not Accredited Official Statistics and have not been validated or quality assured by HSC Trusts prior to publication.
Data quality is addressed on an ongoing basis and figures are subject to revision in subsequent publications as hospital records may not be fully up to date as at the publication date.
Provisional statistics on inpatient and day case activity do not include:
• Planned patients
• Emergency patients
• Other patients not admitted from a waiting list e.g. transferred patients
Further technical guidance
Technical guidance and definitions, as well as notes on how to use the data contained within this statistical release are available at the following link: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/inpatient-waiting-times
Additional Information and Data
Data from this publication
Data detailed in this publication are available in Excel file format to aid secondary analysis.
Excel and CSV files are available to download at the following link: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/northern-ireland-waiting-time-statistics-inpatient-and-day-case-waiting-times-september-2024
Other waiting times publications
Statistics on waiting times for outpatients, diagnostic services, cancer and emergency care are available at the following link: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/topics/doh-statistics-and-research/hospital-waiting-times-statistics
Accredited Official Statistics
Accredited Official Statistics are
called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service
Act 2007. The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has accredited these
statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and
Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of
Practice for Statistics.
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.
Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website Office for Statistics Regulation (https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk).
It is the Department of Health’s responsibility, as the producer, to maintain compliance with the standards expected of Accredited Official Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the OSR promptly. Accredited Official Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained and reinstated when standards are restored.
These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the OSR in March 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
Since the assessment by the OSR, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Find out more about the Code of Practice for Statistics at: https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/.
Find out more about Official Statistics at: https://uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/about-the-authority/uk-statistical-system/types-of-official-statistics/
Accessibility contact
Please contact Hospital Waits Information Branch for assistance with accessibility requirements or alternative formats.
Email: statistics@health-ni.gov.uk
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