Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of patients who have waited longer than 28 days to receive diagnostic tests related to cancer, in each of the last three years, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust.
Minister of Health: My department does not currently hold information on the length of time patients wait to receive a diagnostic test from the point of addition to the waiting list to completion of the relevant diagnostic. This would be classified as ‘completed waits’ information and is not yet available from the Epic system.
A snapshot is available for patients who were actively waiting over 28 days for a diagnostic test related to cancer at 31 March 2026 and is shown in the table below. For the purposes of this information, a diagnostic test is defined as an imaging test or gastro-intestinal endoscopy procedure.
| HSC Trust | Number of patients waiting more than 28 days for a suspected cancer diagnostic test |
| Belfast | 162 |
| Northern | 273 |
| South Eastern | 636 |
| Southern | 293 |
| Western | 88 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,452 |
My department is committed to reducing waiting times for patients who require cancer and time critical diagnostic tests. As part of the Elective Care Framework: Implementation and Funding Plan, £13m is being invested in endoscopy services and a further £12m in diagnostic imaging. This funding will deliver approximately 16,500 endoscopy procedures and 7,800 imaging sessions per year when fully implemented.
ENDS
Your MLA 