UNFORTUNATELY long waiting lists for hospital treatment are nothing new, but it has to be a matter of concern that the problem appears to be getting worse.
The focus in recent times has been on Accident and Emergency and the unacceptable delays faced by patients, many of them elderly and vulnerable.
Figures released in January showed that Northern Ireland had the worst A&E waiting times in the UK with only 76 per cent of patients seen within four hours, well below the target of 95 per cent.
There have been well-documented difficulties in casualty units with high demand putting staff under intolerable pressure. Last month some trusts were forced to cancel planned operations in order to cope with a surge in the number of people turning up at A&E.
But it is clear the problem of lengthy waiting times goes much wider than emergency departments.
Latest Department of Health figures for December 2014 showed that the number of people waiting for their first hospital appointment had grown to 172,000, an increase of 57,000 on the same period in 2013.
This is an alarming rise by any standards, but that is not the whole story.
Under the department's guidelines, 80 per cent of patients should wait no longer than nine weeks to attend hospital for the first time.
However, this target was breached on a huge scale, with 61,000 people waiting longer than 15 weeks.
There is something seriously wrong with our health service when someone referred by their GP to a specialist has to wait almost four months to be seen.
Many of these patients will be in pain and discomfort, their lives affected to some degree and feeling anxious about their condition.
Once it is determined that someone needs an operation, they then face yet another delay with almost 10,000 patients waiting more than six months for their procedure.
Although these figures are worrying, it is perhaps no surprise that we are facing a worsening picture.
Last summer, the north's five health trusts were told to "temporarily pause" sending patients to private clinics because of financial constraints.
Using private contractors cost £130 million over a three-year period, which is undoubtedly a substantial sum but it also reduced waiting times for some treatments including hip and knee operations.
These firms also carried out a significant amount of diagnostic work, including MRI and CT scans.
Fears were expressed at the time that this moratorium could prove a long-term move with profound consequences for waiting times.
It is now up to the health authorities to explain how they propose to tackle spiralling waiting lists within existing resources.