Derry MLA Maeve McLaughlin has expressed her concern at how the Health Department are dealing with the level of cancelled appointments, especially those that are cancelled by hospital providers and consultants.
The Sinn Fein representative’s comments come after meeting department officials yesterday.
Ms McLaughiln, chairperson of the Health Committee at Stormont, said North has the highest amount of cancelled out-patient appointments between here and England, Scotland and Wales.
The Belfast Trust has the highest among those in the North.
In July alone, there were 29,189 cancelled appointments.
Ms McLaughlin described the figures as “shocking.”
“These are shocking figures and certainly must impact on the health of patients. We were told that some of the reasons given as for why the appointments were cancelled was because the consultant was absent due to personal reasons.
She concluded: “This amount of cancellations is not acceptable and clearly the department needs to rectify the situation so that patients are treated to the best health service possible.”