Over 40,000 patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in the Western Trust at the end of March had been waiting for over a year.

This breached the official target of having no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks.

The Department of Health's quarterly Outpatient, Inpatient and Day Case, and Diagnostic Waiting Times Statistics show that at March 31, 42,552 (52.1 per cent) of 81,722 patients were waiting for an appointment in the Western Trust.

An official target of having 50 per cent of patients waiting less than nine weeks was also missed with just 12,625 (15.4 per cent) of 81,722 being seen within that timeframe.

Over 40,000 patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in the Western Trust at the end of March had been waiting for over a year.

placeholder image — Over 40,000 patients waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment in the Western Trust at the end of March had been waiting for over a year.

A total of 26,545 (32.5 per cent) of 81,722 patients had a consultant-led outpatient appointment within nine to 52 weeks.

At March 31, 2026, no Health and Social Care Trust met either element of the outpatient waiting times target, according to the authors of the bulletin.