South Eastern Trust criticised for lack of transparency over mental health waiting times

The New Script campaign seeks to build a progressive and inclusive social movement, bringing together everyone in society who believes there is a need for a better approach to mental health.

The campaign had submitted a Freedom of Information request to each of the Trusts in Northern Ireland, seeking details of mental health provision in Northern Ireland.

Whilst four of the Trusts provided the information requested, the South Eastern Trust refused the request, which has been heavily criticised by the campaign.

Caroline Boyle, an activist for New Script for Mental Health, said: “What confidence can the public have in those commitments if basic information about access to mental health services can be routinely supplied within the health system while being difficult or impossible for members of the public and campaigners to obtain?

"For New Script for Mental Health, openness cannot mean information flowing upwards from Trusts to government while the public remains in the dark.

"People using mental health services, their families and communities have a legitimate right to know how services are performing and whether people are being left waiting for the support they need.

"We keep hearing that lessons are being learned. But lessons are not learned simply because they appear in reports, reviews, or policy documents. They are learned when they change how organisations behave.

"If health bodies are serious about openness and candour, the public should not have to fight for access to basic information about whether people are waiting too long for mental health care.

"The question is therefore not simply whether the South Eastern Trust can technically retrieve this particular dataset. It is whether Northern Ireland's health system is genuinely moving towards a culture of openness - or whether secrecy, fragmented information and institutional barriers to scrutiny remain deeply embedded.

"Transparency is not an optional extra. Without access to information, there can be no meaningful public scrutiny, no accountability and ultimately no confidence that lessons really are being learned.”

A spokesperson for the South Eastern Trust responded to the criticism, saying that the information could not be provided when requested due to changes in the Trust’s patient record system.

"The South Eastern Trust was the first Trust in Northern Ireland to Go-Live with encompass, the Regional electronic patient record system, on November 9, 2023,” the Trust spokesperson said.

"This paved the way for all the other Trusts to also implement this ground breaking system, which benefits every patient in the Region. The final Trusts did not Go-Live until May 2025.

"The FOI request for the information spans the period when the Trust was installing this pioneering system, so unfortunately during this time, the requested Mental Health and Psychological Therapies waiting time data was not available, as it was still being validated and not accurate.

"From March 2026, the Trust has been routinely providing Adult Mental Health and Psychological Therapies waiting time data.

"The South Eastern Trust is committed to being open and transparent and will provide any data, if it is available and reliable.”