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 information extracted from the encompass system.
Published by: Information & Analysis
Directorate, Department of Health
Statisticians: Adam Robinson, Thomas Cash & Heidi
Rodgers
Contact: statistics@health-ni.gov.uk
Reporting Date: 30 September 2025
Publication Date: 4 December 2025
The next quarterly publication is scheduled for 4 March 2026. Latest
updates to all DoH statistical releases can be found here Statistical
releases calendar | Department of Health.
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 Trust on 6 June 2024, in Northern Trust on 7 November 2024, and in Southern and Western Trusts on 8 May 2025. Disaggregated data for Belfast for Quarter Ending June 2024; data for Northern for Quarter Ending December 2024; and data for Southern and Western Trusts for quarter ending June 2025, are not currently available.
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 and they are not directly comparable with legacy (pre-encompass) data, they are a meaningful representation of what they measure and are of sufficient quality for publication and use.
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.
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:
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 sourced from encompass are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
91,645 patients were waiting for inpatient or day case admission to hospitals on 30 September 2025.
56.7% of patients were waiting for admission under the Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, General Surgery or Ophthalmology specialties.
The median waiting time was 35.1 weeks.
The 95th percentile waiting time was 326.7 weeks.
68.9% (63,165 of 91,645) of patients were waiting more than 13 weeks for admission.
41.6% (38,166 of 91,645) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for admission.
Inpatient and Day Case Waiting List
Figures sourced from encompass are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
On 30 September 2025, there were 91,645 patients waiting for inpatient or day case admission to hospitals.
Figure 1: Patients Waiting for an Inpatient or Day Case Admission
30 June 2007 to 30 September 2025
Note: The grey box indicates the time period when HSC Trusts transitioned to the encompass patient record system. encompass and legacy (pre-encompass) figures are not directly comparable.
This line chart shows that the number of patients waiting rose steadily from 35,443 on 30 June 2007 to 115,929 on 30 September 2023, the last quarter for which all data were sourced from legacy sources and for which overall figures for all five HSC Trusts were published.
91,645 patients were waiting on 30 September 2025, which is the first quarter following the encompass transition period for which validated data for all five HSC Trusts are available.
Waiting List by Specialty
Figures sourced from encompass are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
On 30 September 2025, the largest waiting lists were for Orthopaedics (25.4%, 23,256 patients) and Gastroenterology (13.5%, 12,337 patients).
Figure 2: Patients Waiting for an Inpatient or Day Case Admission by Specialty
30 September 2025
The bar chart above shows the number of patients waiting for admission under each specialty as at 30 September 2025. Only specialties with at least 500 patients waiting are shown.
Note that the specialty classification used in encompass differs significantly from that of the legacy system. Therefore, specialties are not directly comparable with pre-encompass data.
Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times
Figures sourced from encompass are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
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 2025, the median waiting time for all patients was 35.1 weeks and the 95th percentile was 326.7 weeks (approximately 6 years and 15 weeks).
Figure 3: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times
30 June 2007 to 30 September 2025
Note: The grey box indicates the time period when HSC Trusts transitioned to the encompass patient record system. encompass and legacy (pre-encompass) figures are not directly comparable.
The solid line in Figure 3 shows that the median waiting time increased gradually from 6.7 weeks at 30 June 2007 to 29.1 weeks at 31 March 2020. There was then a sharp increase to 77.4 weeks on 30 September 2021, then a gradual decrease to 55.7 weeks on 30 September 2023, the last quarter for which all data were sourced from legacy sources and for which overall figures for all five HSC Trusts were published. On 30 September 2025, which is the first quarter following the encompass transition period for which validated data for all five HSC Trusts are available, the median waiting time was 35.1 weeks.
The 95th percentile has increased steadily from 32.9 weeks at 31 March 2014 to 280.7 weeks (approximately 5 years, 21 weeks) on 30 September 2023. On 30 September 2025, the 95th percentile was 326.7 weeks (approximately 6 years, 15 weeks).
Waiting Times by Specialty
Figures sourced from encompass are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.
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 4: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times by Specialty
30 September 2025
The bar chart above shows the median and 95th percentile waiting times for specialties where at least 500 patients were waiting for admission at 30 September 2025. The longest median waiting time was 169.6 weeks in the Plastic Surgery specialty.
At least one in twenty (5%) patients waiting for Plastic Surgery, Breast Surgery, ENT, Gynaecology, General Surgery, Gynaecology, Orthopaedics or Urology admissions had been waiting over 5 years.
Note that the specialty classification used in encompass differs significantly from that of the legacy system. Therefore, specialties are not directly comparable with pre-encompass data.
Performance against Targets
The 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. This target was introduced in 2016/17. On 30 September 2025, the target of 55% of patients waiting less than 9 weeks was not achieved, with 68.9% waiting over 13 weeks (63,165 of 91,645 patients). At the same time, the target of no patients waiting longer than 52 weeks was also not achieved, with 41.6% (38,166 of 91,645 patients) having waited longer than 52 weeks.
Please note that trend information regarding performance against targets is temporarily suspended due to the rollout of encompass. Trend information derived using pre-encompass (legacy) data sources for performance against targets are included in the publication for quarter ending 31 March 2025, and earlier publications.
Performance by HSC Trust
Figures sourced from encompass 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 indicate the Health and Social Care Trust responsible for a patient’s care. As Day Case Procedure Centres are a regional service, they have been reported separately from HSC Trusts.
Figure 5: Waiting Times by HSC Trust and Day Case Procedure Centres
30 September 2025
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.
On 30 September 2025, 31.1% (28,480 of 91,645) patients were waiting less than 13 weeks and 41.6% (38,166 of 91,645) patients were waiting longer than 52 weeks.
Inpatient and Day Case Activity
Please note that in the quarterly waiting time statistics publications for quarter ending 31 March 2025 and subsequent quarters, provisional inpatient attendance data that have historically been included will be suspended. Validated hospital activity information will continue to be published as Accredited Official Statistics at Hospital activity statistics.
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 and the DoH Inpatient Waiting Times Dataset.
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.
Validated figures for patients reallocated between those HCT Trusts using legacy (pre-encompass) systems and HSC Trusts using the encompass system, were unavailable at the time of publication and are not included.
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
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 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-2025
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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