He was speaking after the Department of Health published new statistics for Emergency Department (ED) wait times, which show that people waiting over 12 hours in Emergency Departments across Northern Ireland has increased by over 14 per cent.
The East Antrim MLA said: “These statistics, whilst extremely worrying, are sadly unsurprising. Year after year, we’re presented with outrageous wait times in our Emergency Departments that continue to get worse.
“A 14 per cent increase in 12 hour waits is utterly unacceptable. The current situation is continuing to cost lives, and these statistics serve as a stark reminder that healthcare transformation is not happening quickly enough.
“Just last week, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine confirmed that there were over 1,000 excess deaths in Northern Ireland in 2025 associated with long waiting times in ED. This has more than doubled in the last 5 years.
“Patients don’t have time to waste, and Alliance has continuously called for joined-up working between emergency, community and social care so that medically fit patients can be discharged from hospital and capacity freed up for new ones coming in.
“The solutions are there, and it’s extremely frustrating that these reforms are taking so long to be implemented. The Minister can no longer sit back while staff remain overstretched and patient safety is at risk.”
The East Antrim MLA said: “These statistics, whilst extremely worrying, are sadly unsurprising. Year after year, we’re presented with outrageous wait times in our Emergency Departments that continue to get worse.
“A 14 per cent increase in 12 hour waits is utterly unacceptable. The current situation is continuing to cost lives, and these statistics serve as a stark reminder that healthcare transformation is not happening quickly enough.
“Just last week, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine confirmed that there were over 1,000 excess deaths in Northern Ireland in 2025 associated with long waiting times in ED. This has more than doubled in the last 5 years.
“Patients don’t have time to waste, and Alliance has continuously called for joined-up working between emergency, community and social care so that medically fit patients can be discharged from hospital and capacity freed up for new ones coming in.
“The solutions are there, and it’s extremely frustrating that these reforms are taking so long to be implemented. The Minister can no longer sit back while staff remain overstretched and patient safety is at risk.”