NI patients wait longer for treatment than Britain

Hospital patients in Northern Ireland are forced to wait longer for treatment than in Britain, a damning new report disclosed today.

Nearly 6,900 people in the North needing non-urgent operations experienced at least a 12-month wait, compared with none in Scotland and just over 550 in England, latest figures showed.

Five men and women had to wait more than a year for cardiac surgery, the Northern Ireland Audit Office study found.

The number of outpatients waiting more than three months for a first appointment has also spiralled by 457% from 16,100 in March 1996 to about 89,700 in June 2004.