To ask the Minister of Health to detail any steps his Department is taking to rebuild public confidence in health and social care services following long delays in treatment and diagnosis.

It is understandable that public confidence in Health and Social Care services has been eroded due to the unacceptable waiting lists here, however, I am determined to rebuild that confidence.

My Department is striving to deliver improvements in elective care services here and the roadmap to do so is detailed in the Elective Care Framework, which focuses on a wide range of measures and initiatives needed to improve and reform elective care services and address those long delays in treatment and diagnosis.

Positive achievements have already been made, through a number of initiatives, including; the development of elective care centres, rapid diagnosis centres and mega clinics.

As I outlined in my statement to the Assembly on 6 May 2025, following the Executive’s ringfencing of £215m in this year’s Health budget for waiting list activities, I plan to introduce a package of measures to reduce waiting list backlogs including; targeting long waiting patients, expansion of elective services in Primary Care, investment in Mega Clinics and a new Waiting List Reduction Reimbursement Scheme.

Reducing waiting lists will not be a quick fix and it will not be resolved in a year or two. Investment at this level will need to be sustained for up to five years to bring hospital waiting times down to acceptable levels.