To ask the Minister of Health how the £5 million allocated to support and expand breast services across Health and Social Care Trusts has been used to improve patient outcomes.

Mr Nesbitt (The Minister of Health)

Work is under way with the trusts to define the requirements for what will be a modernised, consultant-led model for breast services. That includes expanding the multidisciplinary team and strengthening the skill mix across nursing and allied health professional staff. The objective is to increase capacity, resilience and long-term sustainability. The resource, workforce and training needs emerging from that planning will shape a recurrent investment plan, aligned with the £5 million that was identified under the elective care framework implementation and funding plan. Recognising that service reform and workforce development take time to establish, a proportion of the funding has been used non-recurrently to deliver immediate improvements that support better outcomes for patients. Given the sustained capacity pressures in breast services, funding has been directed towards additional evening and weekend assessment clinics for red-flag and urgent referrals, ensuring faster access for patients presenting with time-critical symptoms. Between April 2025 and December 2025, approximately £540,000 enabled the delivery of around 1,230 additional appointments. A bespoke payment-by-results pilot, which was introduced in October last year, has further incentivised the delivery of extra out-of-hours clinics at evenings and weekends, helping to address the breast assessment waiting list backlog.

Mr Nesbitt

As of 8 May last year, Encompass has been rolled out across the five geographic trusts. The trusts are looking for a considerable period of time in which to embed Encompass. I find that a little bit frustrating, because I am not a technician or an IT expert. However, it is certainly moving in the right direction. I suggest gently to the Member that the most important thing that I said in my original answer to her was about the introduction of a bespoke payment-by-results pilot scheme. Normally, we engage a trust and commission it to do a list. In other words, a team will go into a theatre and work for, say, four hours. It may deliver four, six or more than six procedures, depending on the variance in the trust. The idea of the money's following the patient is being rolled out with payment by results so that there is now an incentive for those teams to deliver more.

Mrs Dodds

Minister, the one thing that I found encouraging from your statement was that the £5 million will be recurrent funding. However, research from Cancer Research UK tells us that, in general, Northern Ireland has the longest cancer waiting lists and the poorest outcomes of anywhere in the United Kingdom. That is a moral and ethical issue that must be resolved. A couple of weeks ago, Wes Streeting launched a cancer plan for England. Will you launch an action plan on cancer services for Northern Ireland that is separate from the elective care plan? The current model simply is not working.

Mr Nesbitt

My Department is working closely with the trusts, progressing the development of a modernised, Northern Ireland-specific breast service model, and we are doing that at speed. However, it is important that we are clear that meaningful, sustainable improvement is not quick or easy to achieve. It cannot happen overnight. Transforming a service of this scale and complexity requires a phased approach over a significant period of time. I am committed to achieving that, and I hope that that is consistent with what the Member is seeking. The vision includes expanding multidisciplinary teams and strengthening the skill mix across the workforce. It will require a substantial lead-in time to support education, training, recruitment and workforce development. I remain committed to ongoing collaboration with the trusts to ensure that all efforts are maximised to support timely patient access to assessment, treatment and care.

Mr McGuigan

I recently met the Lobular Moonshot Project, which is campaigning to raise awareness and research into lobular breast cancer. Are contacts and discussions with Wes Streeting across the water on implementing funding and research here for that particular type of breast cancer on the Minister's radar?

Mr Nesbitt

It was not on my agenda, but, obviously, it is now. If the Member would like to discuss it further, I would be happy to do that, even later this afternoon.