FactCheckNI confirms Mark H Durkins comment on the health waiting lists:
From the article:
CLAIM: 105,486 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland, which is 100 times more than in England, with its population 30 times greater.
CONCLUSION: ACCURATE. 105,486 and 1,089 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland and England, respectively. The estimated population of Northern Ireland and England is 55,977,178 and 1,881,600, respectively.
The Department of Health (DOH) figures show that as of 30 June 2019, a total of 299,436 patients were waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment. This is 3.7% (10,682) more than at 31 March 2019 (288,754) and 8.5% (23,552) more than at 30 June 2018 (275,884).
Over a third of patients — 35.2% (105,450) — were waiting more than a year for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment, an increase of 5.3% on the same quarter last year (when there were 88,598 patients).
Not a great reflection on our local health service and it is likely to only get worse. My advice is if you have any health concern or a family history of health problems get signed up to Benenden Health ASAP – a tenner a month gets you covered. We now have a two-tier system were, as usual, the poor get shafted.
And do people care? Do they frig. Who cares about health when we can be talking about our endless culture wars.
Photo by Andrik Langfield is licensed under CC0
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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