Mr. Liam Woods:

I agree that they are. The inpatient list was reducing, and while it grew as a result of Covid, it is now reducing again and the October figure is almost under 75,000. More generally, what will make a difference is there will be significant investment in chronic condition management outside of hospitals. Changing the model of care in order that more people are seen in the community by multidisciplinary teams is the way to address this. That will happen in areas such as cardiology and respiratory medicine, which will help address these lists. Significant initiatives, arising from the Covid response, are under way to do that. I should have highlighted earlier that the advent of virtual clinics as part of the Covid response has significantly assisted in addressing what was, as the Deputy rightly noted, a growth in numbers over recent months.