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Health News: Northern Ireland - Backlogs hit mental health services

1 min read
Some children and young people with mental health problems in Northern Ireland face a long wait for treatment because of disparities in the way services operate across the province.

One young person had to wait four years for an initial assessment from the country's largest trust, the Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust in Belfast.

And Angela Smith, the health and social services minister, has admitted that the country's only regional in-patient unit for children and adolescents remains closed to new admissions.

Blaming a shortage of clinical cover, Smith said no young in-patients had been admitted to the unit since last August and only seven patients were undergoing treatment at present.

In response to a parliamentary question from Iris Robinson, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) health spokeswoman, Smith revealed that outpatient waiting times varied massively across the region.

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