NICON Webinar: Assessing progress - Tackling waiting lists and modernising outpatient care
Battles won, but are we winning the war? Over the last year there has been a concerted effort to reduce the waiting lists in Northern Ireland in line with the current Programme for Government and the Health and Social Care Reset Plan. £50 million of new money was allocated to deal with the backlog.
This webinar will feature Professor Mark Taylor, Northern Ireland’s first Regional Clinical Director for Elective Care, who was appointed in July 2025 and has played central role in overseeing, leading, and supporting the NI Department of Health’s drive to reduce waiting lists. We will also hear from other experts (additional speakers still tbc).
The webinar will examine the achievements made over the last year in relation to the procedures and outpatient waiting lists specified in the updated elective care framework. We will look at how we can build capacity within the system and modernise outpatient and elective activity.
During the webinar, we will consider the strategies being developed to ultimately win the war on waiting lists. We will discuss topics such as patient initiated follow-up (PIFU), AI, the use of encompass, and direct to test strategies.
This webinar is the fourth event in our ‘Reset’ discussion series, which will run throughout 2026. The series will bring together HSC leaders, partners, and expert speakers to consider the key elements of the Reset Plan for health and social care in NI.
