Mental Health waiting targets breached by the Western Trust

by Gráinne Connolly

The Western Trust have reportedly been breaching their waiting list targets for mental health on a monthly basis. 

At the end of January this year, over 9 hundred people in the trust's area were left waiting for access to adult mental health services.

91 of these people were left over waiting over the trust's 9 week target. 

The longest wait recorded has been 20 weeks for one of the patients in need of the adult mental health services. 

It's also been a similar case when it comes to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health services.

There's over 3 hundred individuals on the waiting list and 93 of them have been waiting longer than the target 9 weeks. 

Overall, there have been 21,118 outpatient appointments cancelled by a hospital in the Western Trust area within the 2016/2017 financial year. 

Over 2,000 if these were in January alone. 

Q Radio have attempted to contact the Western Trust and find out the reason behind all of the breaches, however, there's been no response made in return.