HEALTH Minister Michelle O'Neill will unveil her proposals for tackling growing waiting lists in the coming days.
A Department of Health spokesman confirmed to The Irish News that the so-called 'Elective Care Plan' will be published "in the next week". It follows claims that the minister had missed her own previous deadline of the end of last month.
On January 24, Ms O'Neill, Sinn Féin's new northern leader, told the assembly that she was "on course" to unveil the plan earlier this week.
"We are finalising all the details, but I will take the opportunity to publish it, as I said I would," the minister said.
"It is part of the wider transformation programme that I have already set out and that we need to see brought through, because we have to transform the health service."
SDLP health spokesman Mark H Durkan said that in the same way the Bengoa Report had been delayed, Ms O'Neill's plan for cutting waiting lists was "lamentably overdue".
"We may be impatient to see her plan but that’s nothing compared to the suffering of patients, some of whom have been waiting years for treatment, many coping with chronic pain others have got into debt seeking private treatment," he said.
His Alliance counterpart Paula Bradshaw said the health minister had a responsibility for putting in place mechanisms to reduce the time the thousands of people across the north had to wait for consultations, treatment and surgery.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said the Elective Care Plan would be published in the next week.
"The minister has a full programme of work planned and her vision in ‘Delivering Together’ makes the path very clear," the spokesman said.