To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety for his assessment of the current waiting list for patients seeking an outpatient appointment for Paediatric Gastroenterology Services in (i) Northern Ireland; and (ii) specifically, Altnagelvin Hospital.

Currently, paediatric gastroenterology is a tertiary service provided by the Belfast Trust at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. At the 23rd June 2015, there were 41 children waiting for an outpatient appointment and 215 children waiting for an endoscopy inpatient procedure within the paediatric gastroenterology service.

In 2014/15, Belfast Trust took clinical responsibility for Western Trust area patients and established a centralised single waiting list for all children in Northern Ireland to ensure chronological management and equity of waiting times for children, irrespective of where they live. In September 2014, Belfast Trust commenced a bi-monthly outreach service to Altnagelvin Hospital to help support local access to outpatient services.

A local paediatric gastroenterology network group was established in 2012, with a remit to standardise care, policies and procedures through NI and to improve communication links between the HSC Trusts.

There have been significant staff sick leave issues over the last 18 months which have increased the pressure on the service. The HSC Board and Public Health Agency remain actively engaged and committed to working to resolve these issues in as short at timescale as possible and the HSCB has offered to support any additional capacity that the Belfast Trust can secure, either locally or nationally, to reduce waiting lists . The local paediatric gastroenterology network group is also carrying out work with the HSCB and the Public Health Agency on staffing levels for paediatric gastroenterology in NI compared to other regions in the UK.