Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, MLA has visited the Regional Breast Assessment Booking Service at the Ulster Hospital

Transcript

00:00So the regional waiting list has been created because there was inequity across the region.

00:04We've got five units in Northern Ireland that provide breast cancer assessment clinics

00:08and each of those are under pressures at different times.

00:10So in order to make sure there's a quality of how long patients are having to wait for those assessments

00:14the regional list allows us to do that.

00:16Patients are referred into the local trust and then they join the central waiting list in South Eastern Trust

00:20and that is after triage.

00:22From that point then they are booked by our booking team

00:26and the longest waiting patient is at the top of that list and they are phoned first.

00:29They'll be offered the first available appointment which could be anywhere in Northern Ireland.

00:33I'm very impressed with this service because having a standardised regional service wherever possible

00:40is my ambition, is my vision.

00:42Nearly everybody is prepared to travel but of course they've got the choice.

00:46You can say the next available appointment might be some distance away from where you are

00:50but if you'd rather wait and go local that's your choice.

00:54So I'd just like to reassure patients that if you do have to travel for your assessment appointment

00:58and you're diagnosed with a condition that requires any treatment

01:02that we will endeavour to refer you back to your home trust for treatment

01:05and that is the way that this is set up is so that patients can receive treatment in their closest trust.

01:10So the team are doing a fantastic job. They are aware of every clinic, of every slot.

01:14They are filling every appointment slot and they are ensuring that there is no lost capacity within the system.

01:19We couldn't have done this before in Compass with the separate PAS systems.

01:25We can do it now because we have one system for all five trusts.

01:29The benefits of this system for the patient are you have a single waiting list,

01:34you have equity of service, every patient is being treated exactly the same.

01:40From the end of January to the 8th of May to get this system implemented is a massive task

01:44and a massive, massive achievement.

01:46I was appointed as the first breast care nurse and actually the first cancer clinical nurse specialist

01:51in Northern Ireland in April 1986 in the Ulster Hospital.

01:55It feels like coming back today is coming full circle from being that teenage student nurse

02:01arriving to home one at the Ulster Hospital to now being back today to see the progress that's being made.

02:07Thank you very much.