Northern Ireland's hospital waiting lists have soared further, it emerged today.
Figures for the North, already the highest in Britan, due to be announced by the Department of Health will show that waiting lists at the end of December stood at 57,704, an increase of 14.5 per cent from the same time a year earlier, when they were 50,416.
The totals are now at a record high - an increase of 1,000 on the previous quarter.
Last March Health Minister Ms Bairbre de Brun pledged to drive down the figures of patients waiting to 48,000. These targets were later amended, given the alarming increase in numbers.
Before Christmas, the-then Finance Minister Mr Mark Durkan announced an extra £41 million would be put into the Health Service to alleviate the crisis.
Women's Coalition MLA, Mrs Monica McWilliams, a member of the Stormont Health Committee, described today's statistics as extremely disappointing.
"It is concerning that the Department has set new targets but it doesn't look as if they are going to meet them. It is extremely disappointing that they are rising rather than decreasing, given the extra money that has been put in over the last year in order to get waiting lists down," she said.
The figures show that the overwhelming numbers of people on the lists are waiting for general surgery.