Hospital waiting lists across Northern Ireland shrank modestly during the first three months of 2026, yet more than half a million patients remain queued for a first consultant appointment and no health trust met official treatment time targets. The Department of Health published the latest quarterly statistics on 3 June 2026, revealing the first full year of data drawn from the new encompass electronic patient record system now operational across all five Health and Social Care Trusts.
The figures indicate small but measurable progress in tackling record backlogs, with outpatient numbers falling by over 16,000 since December 2025. However, with 54% of those waiting for a first appointment still queued for more than a year—and emergency department performance showing renewed strain—the data underscores the scale of the challenge facing the Executive’s Programme for Government commitment to cut health waiting times.
Modest Reductions Across All Categories
The quarterly statistics for March 2026 show declines across outpatient, inpatient and diagnostic waiting lists:
- Outpatient appointments: 510,680 patients were waiting for a first consultant-led appointment at 31 March 2026, a decrease of 3.1% (16,382 patients) from December 2025. The median waiting time fell to 60.1 weeks from 63.7 weeks, though 54.1% (276,312 people) were still waiting longer than 52 weeks. Nearly half of all outpatients (47.7%) were queued for ENT, Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, General Surgery or Dermatology.
- Inpatient and day case treatment: 82,568 patients were waiting for admission, down 5.3% (4,588 patients) from December 2025. The median wait improved to 26.1 weeks from 31.1 weeks, but 35.5% (29,314 patients) still faced waits exceeding 52 weeks. Two-thirds of these patients were waiting for Orthopaedics, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, ENT or Ophthalmology.
- Diagnostic tests: 219,917 patients were waiting for a diagnostic service, a decrease of 1.3% (2,975 patients). While 58.8% were waiting more than nine weeks, this represents an improvement from 63.2% in December 2025. Those waiting over 26 weeks fell from 38.6% to 35.7%.
- Diagnostic reporting: During the quarter, 486,982 tests were reported. Of the 136,364 urgent tests, 78.4% were reported within two days—up from 77.4% in the previous quarter, but still short of the target that all urgent tests should be reported within this timeframe.
No Trust Meets Government Targets
Despite the downward trend, the Department of Health confirmed that no HSC Trust met any component of the waiting time targets at 31 March 2026. The draft targets state that 50% of outpatients should be seen within nine weeks with no one waiting longer than 52 weeks; 55% of inpatients should be treated within 13 weeks with no one exceeding 52 weeks; and 75% of diagnostic patients should be seen within nine weeks with no one waiting over 26 weeks.
The 95th percentile waiting times—the point at which the longest waits sit—remain stark. For outpatients, this figure stood at 281.6 weeks (approximately five years and five months), though this is down from 303.7 weeks in December 2025. For inpatients, the 95th percentile was 293.7 weeks, down from 320.0 weeks.
The Encompass System: A New Era for Data
The March 2026 statistics carry significant caveats regarding data quality. All figures are drawn from encompass, the electronic patient record system that completed its region-wide rollout in May 2025 when the Southern and Western Trusts went live. The system now provides a single digital care record for every citizen receiving health and social care in Northern Ireland.
Because the data source has changed from legacy systems to encompass, the Department classifies these figures as “official statistics in development” in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Officials caution that the figures are not directly comparable with pre-encompass data, though they are considered “a meaningful representation of what they measure and are of sufficient quality for publication and use.”
The system is intended to enable better tracking of patients and reduce administrative delays, but its implementation has required significant adjustment. During the Belfast Trust go-live in June 2024, for example, staff initially could not locate seven patients in beds at midnight on the first night due to data migration issues—discovering later that some had been discharged or transferred.
Emergency Care Pressures Mount
The waiting list figures come against a backdrop of deteriorating performance in emergency departments. Separate statistics published in April 2026 revealed that 12,549 patients waited more than 12 hours in emergency care departments during March 2026—accounting for 17.4% of all attendances and representing an increase from 10,977 in March 2025. The number of patients spending less than four hours in Type 1 emergency departments fell to 30.8% in March 2026, down from 34.2% in March 2025.
This suggests that while elective care waiting lists are beginning to stabilise, urgent and emergency care pathways remain under severe strain.
Executive Commits £80 Million for 2026/27
In response to the persistent backlogs, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt recently announced that £80 million will be ringfenced during the 2026/27 financial year specifically for waiting list and elective care capacity building. The funding, confirmed during a visit to Belfast’s Mater Hospital Elective Overnight Stay Centre, forms part of the Executive’s Programme for Government commitment to cut red flag and critical waiting lists.
The Minister has previously acknowledged that eliminating the backlog is a “long-term challenge” requiring sustained investment. The £80 million allocation sits within a broader £165 million annual provision for waiting lists and elective care outlined in the Draft Budget 2026-29, though the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) has warned that funding levels relative to NHS England are at a 10-year low.
Critical Questions
- Given the “official statistics in development” status, how many quarters of encompass data will be required before reliable year-on-year comparisons can be made to accurately measure progress?
- With emergency care waits increasing while elective waits show modest improvement, is capacity being diverted from unscheduled to scheduled care, and what are the risks of this approach?
- The £80 million allocation represents welcome investment, but with the NIAudit Office previously estimating £707 million was required to clear year-long waits by 2026, is this funding level sufficient to maintain momentum?
- What specific interventions are being deployed to address the 54% of outpatients still waiting over a year, particularly in high-volume specialties like ENT and Ophthalmology?
- How will the Department ensure that the encompass system’s promised benefits—such as advanced dashboards and real-time performance reporting—translate into measurable reductions in waiting times rather than simply more accurate measurement of delays?
The latest statistics suggest Northern Ireland’s health service is moving in the right direction, but from an exceptionally high baseline. With encompass now fully deployed across all Trusts, the focus shifts to whether the digital transformation can deliver the operational efficiencies needed to close the gap between current performance and Executive targets. For the hundreds of thousands of patients still facing waits of a year or more, the pace of that improvement remains the critical measure.