To ask the Minister of Health to detail (i) the current waiting times for endometriosis diagnosis and treatment, broken down by Health and Social Care Trust; and (ii) any steps his Department is taking to reduce diagnostic delays for endometriosis.

Assessment, diagnosis and treatment for Endometriosis is part of General Gynaecology waiting times, so Trusts are unable to currently provide a specific waiting time for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis specifically. Trust have provided the following response to this question.

The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is unable to distinguish which patients are requiring an endometriosis diagnosis as this information is not recorded on the hospital systems. The Trust has an Endometriosis Clinic and could provide average waiting times for new appointments at this clinic although not all patients diagnosed with Endometriosis attend this clinic as many also attend general gynaecology clinics.

Within the Southern Health and Social Care Trust the waiting time for endometriosis is unknown as this is not coded at triage.

In the South Eastern Trust, they are unable to extrapolate individual waiting times for women with endometriosis, however referrals are triaged as urgent and time dependent.

The Northern Trust are not able to provide a response to this, as the information requested is not available from their systems. Women referred for suspected endometriosis or related symptoms are triaged and reviewed within general clinics.

In Western Trust not all referrals from GPs are for suspected endometriosis in the first instance and in these cases they are triaged for any Gynaecology consultant to see, according to clinical priority.

The Elective Overnight Stay Centre has been established at the Mater Hospital and this has enabled a reduction in diagnostic delays for endometriosis.

Funding has been made available via DoH/SPPG for Waiting List Initiatives and this has led to extra validation of outpatient and inpatient waiting lists, increase in Multi-Disciplinary Meetings for complex gynaecology/endometriosis which has cleared the backlog of patients awaiting discussion and extra outpatient clinics (especially backlog and telephone review clinics) and inpatient/day case theatre lists.

After consultation, women are then referred for diagnostic procedures for definitive diagnosis, and the waiting times for a diagnostic laparoscopy or MRI can also contribute to the wait