It comes ahead of an Alliance motion due to be debated in the Assembly tomorrow (20 Jan), calling for assurances from the Health Minister, matched by a clearly set out timeline, that winter pressures planning for 2026-27 will proceed much earlier than last year, with detailed plans published no later than the summer of 2026.

Ms McAllister has said: “Both staff and patients alike are bearing the brunt of appalling pressures in our A&E departments over the course of this winter period, not least with the surge of flu cases in recent months.

“However, this situation was entirely foreseeable and could have been mitigated better. Despite our repeated attempts throughout 2025 to query the progress of the Winter Preparedness Plan healthcare professionals were awaiting and would be relying on, by the time it eventually came forward it was entirely too late. Winter pressures were already well and truly upon us.

“These pressures have only been compounded by hospital flow issues that result in higher levels of potentially unsafe corridor care, patients left stuck in ambulance queues and insufficient social care packages enabling patients to be discharged.

“Furthermore, the failure to take early action to bring down waiting lists and implement other measures to prevent so many people ending up in hospital at all needs to be tackled in order to achieve permanent change.

“The Winter Preparedness Plan was due in August, and then was not published until mid-October. We simply cannot accept this kind of delay as the norm. Our patients and health staff deserve better.”