Accredited Official Statistics

All statistics contained within this publication are Accredited Official Statistics except for outpatient activity statistics.

Published by: Information & Analysis Directorate, Department of Health
Statisticians: Brian Reilly, Thomas Cash & Heidi Rodgers
Contact:

Reporting Date: 31 December 2024
Publication Date: 27 February 2025
The next quarterly publication is scheduled for 29 May 2025. 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 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 the South Eastern and Belfast Trusts continue to transition to completely digitised health records, their data have been presented separately. Given the relatively recent transition of Northern Trust, no validated data were available for this Trust at the time of publication.

The data which it has been possible to include for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts (disaggregated data for Belfast for Quarters Ending June and September 2024 are not currently available) are not directly comparable with the other Trusts. Therefore, they have been presented in a separate ‘Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts’ section and relevant charts. 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 for patients waiting for a first outpatient appointment in the Trusts using encompass i.e. South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts, are presented separately and figures with time series only include data to 31 December 2024 for the Southern and Western HSC Trusts.


This statistical release presents information on waiting times for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland and reports on the performance of the Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts against the draft waiting times target, which states that:

“50% of patients should wait no longer than nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment; 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 outpatient 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:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/northern-ireland-waiting-time-statistics-outpatient-waiting-times-december-2024

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 for Southern and Western HSC Trusts

First Consultant-led Outpatient Appointment Waiting Times

  • 167,452 patients were waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment at hospitals in the Southern and Western HSC Trusts on 31 December 2024, 0.6% (921) more than on 30 September 2024 (166,531), and 12.1% (18,037) more than on 31 December 2023 (149,415).

  • 57.6% of patients were waiting for an appointment under the General Surgery, ENT, Gynaecology, T & O Surgery or Ophthalmology specialties.

  • The median waiting time was 67.6 weeks and the 95th percentile waiting time was 288.6 weeks.

  • 87.8% (147,048) of patients were waiting more than nine weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 31 December 2024, compared with 86.5% (144,011) on 30 September 2024 and 86% (128,476) on 31 December 2023.

  • 56.5% (94,588) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 31 December 2024, compared with 55.5% (92,378) on 30 September 2024 and 52.5% (78,502) on 31 December 2023.

Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts

First Consultant-led Outpatient Appointment Waiting Times

The figures provided for the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures. Validated data for the Northern HSC Trust were not available at the time of publication.

Community Paediatrics data sourced from encompass are currently under review and are higher than in previous quarters.

  • 274,341 patients were waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment at hospitals in the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts on 31 December 2024.

  • 43.9% of patients were waiting for an appointment under the Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Gynaecology, ENT or Orthopaedics specialties.

  • The median waiting time was 60.1 weeks and the 95th percentile waiting time was 308.1 weeks.

  • 87.3% (239,535) of patients were waiting more than nine weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 31 December 2024.

  • 54.2% (148,819) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 31 December 2024.

Outpatient Waiting List

Figures in this section do not include the Belfast, Northern or South Eastern HSC Trusts. Data for the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts are reported separately and validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication. The previously published time series which includes all Trusts up to 30 September 2023 has, however, been included in Figure 1 to provide context.

Unlike legacy (pre-encompass) data, figures sourced from encompass are currently taken from the point of completed patient triage.

As at 31 December 2024, there were 167,452 patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment at hospitals in the Southern and Western Trusts.

The number of patients waiting has increased by 0.6% (921) from 30 September 2024 and increased by 12.1% (18,037) from 31 December 2023.


Figure 1: Patients Waiting for a First Consultant-led Outpatient Appointment

30 June 2008 to 31 December 2024

The solid line in Figure 1 shows that the number of patients waiting in Southern and Western Trusts has risen steadily from 29,938 on 31 March 2013 to 167,452 on 31 December 2024.

Waiting List by Specialty

Figures for the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts’ section and Figure 2b. Validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication.

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 Southern and Western Trusts.

At 31 December 2024, the largest waiting lists were for General Surgery (27,440 patients) and ENT (24,776 patients).

Of specialties with at least 2,000 patients waiting, the greatest proportionate growth was in the Gastroenterology specialty, which grew by 34.5% (1,677 patients). The greatest proportionate reduction was in the Rheumatology specialty, with 0.8% (52) fewer patients.


Figure 2a: Patients Waiting for a First Consultant-led Outpatient Appointment by Specialty at Southern and Western HSC Trusts

31 December 2024 compared with 31 December 2023

The bar chart above shows the number of patients waiting at the Southern and Western HSC Trusts for an appointment in each specialty as at 31 December 2024, with markers comparing numbers as at 31 December 2023. Only specialties with at least 2,000 patients waiting are shown.

The figures provided for the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’. Therefore, caution must be exercised when using these figures.

At 31 December 2024, the largest waiting lists in the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts were for Ophthalmology (41,506 patients) and Dermatology (22,313 patients).


Figure 2b: Patients Waiting for a First Consultant-led Outpatient Appointment by Specialty at Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts

31 December 2024

The bar chart above shows the number of patients waiting for an appointment at the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts in each specialty as at 31 December 2024. Only specialties with at least 5,000 patients waiting are shown.

Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times

Figures in this section do not include the Belfast, Northern or South Eastern HSC Trusts. Data for the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts’ section. Validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication.

Exclusions From This Analysis

For the legacy (pre-encompass) data, Paedaetrics, Genito-Urinary Medicine, Learning Disability and Old Age Psychiatry specialties are excluded from the analysis due to limited data availability.

Information required to produce this analysis is not available prior to 30 June 2020.


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.

At 31 December 2024, the median waiting time for a first outpatient appointment in Southern and Western HSC Trusts was 67.6 weeks and the 95th percentile was 288.6 weeks (approximately 5 years and 28 weeks).


Figure 3: Median and 95th Percentile Waiting Times at Southern and Western HSC Trusts

30 June 2020 to 31 December 2024

The solid line in Figure 3 shows that the median waiting time at Southern and Western HSC Trusts has increased from 38.9 weeks at 30 June 2020 to 67.6 weeks at 31 December 2024. The 95th percentile waiting time has increased steadily from 166.7 weeks at 30 June 2020 to 288.6 weeks at 31 December 2024.

Waiting Times by Specialty

Figures for the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts’ section and Figure 4b. Validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication.

Exclusions From This Analysis

For the legacy (pre-encompass) data, Paedaetrics, Genito-Urinary Medicine, Learning Disability and Old Age Psychiatry specialties are excluded from the analysis due to limited data availability.


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 Times by Specialty in Southern and Western HSC Trusts

31 December 2024

The bar chart above shows the median and 95th percentile waiting times in the Southern and Western HSC Trusts for specialties where at least 5,000 patients were waiting for appointments at 31 December 2024. The longest median waiting time was 107 weeks in the Neurology specialty.

Neurology, Rheumatology, General Medicine, General Surgery, Respiratory, Gastroenterology, ENT, Gynaecology and Ophthalmology specialties all had median waiting times over 1 year.

At least one in twenty (5%) patients waiting for Neurology, Rheumatology, Urology, General Medicine, General Surgery, Respiratory or Dermatology had been waiting over 5 years.

The figures provided for the Belfast and South Eastern 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 Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts

31 December 2024

The bar chart above shows the median and 95th percentile waiting times in the Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts for specialties where at least 5,000 patients were waiting for appointments at 31 December 2024. Please note that this specialty classification differs from that currently used by the Southern and Western HSC Trusts.

Performance against Targets

Figures for the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts are reported separately in the ‘Key Figures for Belfast and South Eastern HSC Trusts’ section. Validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication.

The draft waiting times target states that 50% of patients should wait no longer than 9 weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment; with no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks.

This target was introduced in 2016/17.


Figure 5: Patients Waiting Under 9 Week Target at Southern and Western HSC Trusts

30 June 2016 to 31 December 2024

The line and stacked bar charts above illustrate the percentage and number of patients waiting less than 9 weeks in the Southern and Western HSC Trusts from 30 June 2016 to 31 December 2024.

Across this period the target of 50% of patients waiting less than 9 weeks was not achieved, with the highest proportion under 9 weeks being 38.2% (25,134 of 65,848 patients) at 30 June 2016.

As at 31 December 2024, 12.2% of patients were waiting less than 9 weeks, a decrease from 14% at 31 December 2023 and a decrease from 23.7% at 31 December 2019.

Figure 6: Patients Waiting Over 52 Week Target at Southern and Western HSC Trusts

30 June 2016 to 31 December 2024

The line and stacked bar charts above illustrate the percentage and number of patients waiting over 52 weeks in the Southern and Western HSC Trusts from 30 June 2016 to 31 December 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 56.5% (94,588 of 167,452 patients) at 31 December 2024.

At 31 December 2024, 56.5% of patients were waiting longer than 52 weeks, an increase from 52.5% at 31 December 2023 and an increase from 31% in 31 December 2019.

Performance by HSC Trust

The figures provided here for the Belfast and South Eastern 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. Validated data for the Northern Trust were not available at the time of publication.

Draft target: 50% of patients should wait no longer than 9 weeks and no patient should wait longer than 52 weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment.

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, they have been reported separately from HSC Trusts.


Figure 7: Waiting Times by HSC Trust and Day Case Procedure Centres

31 December 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 50% of patients waiting less than 9 weeks, nor the target to have no patients waiting longer than 52 weeks.

Outpatient Activity

Provisional Statistics

Outpatient attendance data are fully validated once per year. Statistics in this section are subject to revision in subsequent releases and do not hold National Statistics status.

Fully validated outpatient activity statistics are published annually at the following link:

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-activity


Figures in this section do not include the Northern HSC Trust. Validated data for this Trust were not available at the time of publication.

Between 01 October and 31 December 2024, there were 98,792 attendances at first outpatient appointments, of which 2.4% (2,391) were at independent sector providers commissioned by HSC Trusts and the remaining 97.6% (96,401) at HSC Trust hospitals.


Figure 8: Number of First Outpatient Attendances Commissioned

Quarter Ending June 2008 to Quarter Ending December 2024

The bar chart above indicates the number of patients who attended first outpatient appointments in each quarter between June 2008 and December 2024, in the Belfast, South Eastern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts.

ICATS Waiting List

Integrated Clinical Assessment and Treatment Services (ICATS) are outpatient services provided by multi-disciplinary teams of health service professionals in all five HSC Trusts. They provide assessment, treatment and advisory services in a variety of primary, community and secondary care settings. Patients who do not require urgent treatment are referred to ICATS teams, if the patient’s condition requires the attention of a consultant, arrangements are made for the patient to be referred for a hospital outpatient appointment.

As ICATS services are not consultant-led, patients waiting for an ICATS appointment are not included in the statistics for consultant-led outpatient services presented in the sections above.


At 31 December 2024, there were 30,209 patients waiting for a first ICATS outpatient appointment. The number of patients waiting has increased by 8.1% (2,253) from 30 September 2024 and increased by 35.0% (7,826) from 31 December 2023.


Figure 9: Patients Waiting for a First ICATS Outpatient Appointment in all five HSC Trusts

30 June 2011 to 31 December 2024

This line chart shows that the number of patients waiting for a first ICATS outpatient appointment rose steadily from 6,134 on 30 June 2011 to 30,209 on 31 December 2024.

Data Sources, Quality and Guidance

Data sources
The sources for the data contained in this release are the HSC Trust’s Patient Administration Systems, encompass, the DoH Outpatient Waiting Times Dataset and the DoH CH3, QOAR, R-QOAR, V-QOAR and IS1 returns.


First consultant-led outpatient appointment
An outpatient appointment is to enable a patient to see a consultant or a member of their team following an outpatient referral. The majority of referrals will be from a GP however they may also be received from a range of other sources.

These appointments provide an opportunity for consultation, investigation and minor treatment. Appointments can be face-to-face or virtual and patients are not admitted into hospital.

A first attendance is the first of a series or the only attendance at an outpatient service.


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 for a first outpatient appointment begins on the date the HSC Trust receives a referral to a consultant-led service.

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 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 6-9 week time band.


Reporting patients against Health and Social Care Trusts
A number of services may not be provided at a patient’s local HSC Trust, and instead are provided as centralised services for Northern Ireland.

As patients are reported against the HSC Trust responsible for the service to which they have been referred, users should be aware of this when making comparisons across Trusts.

In some cases a consultant from one HSC Trust may provide a “visiting” service at another HSC Trust, and so the patient may not be reported at the HSC Trust at which they attend. 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 an outpatient appointment at 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 appointment due to having multiple conditions. Such patients are counted more than once depending on how many times they are waiting.


Patients resident outside Northern Ireland and private patients
Statistics on patients waiting for outpatient appointments include patients living outside Northern Ireland and privately funded patients waiting for treatment in Health Service hospitals in Northern Ireland.


Outpatient activity
Provisional statistics on outpatient activity are presented to provide contextual information in relation to waiting lists. Hospital data are sourced from the HSC Trusts 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 outpatient activity do not include:
• ICATS appointments
• Ward attenders


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/outpatient-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-outpatient-waiting-times-december-2024


Other waiting times publications
Statistics on waiting times for inpatients, 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
National Statistics Logo

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 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.

In November 2021, the OSR conducted a compliance check on these statistics and confirmed that they should continue to be labelled as ‘Accredited Official Statistics’. Further details can be found at: https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/mark-pont-to-eugene-mooney-Northern-ireland-ni-outpatient-waiting-time-statistics/

In May 2022, the OSR extended the accredited official statistics designation to include Day Case Procedure Centre waiting times statistics.

Since the assessments 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/.


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