To ask the Minister of Health what provision exists for people to access bariatric surgery (i) locally via the Health Service; and (ii) for referrals to other parts of UK and Ireland.

Bariatric surgery is not currently commissioned locally in the Health & Social Care (HSC) service in Northern Ireland. In March 2020, my department announced plans to explore options to develop a regional bariatric service. This work has been temporarily suspended due to the need to respond to the ongoing pandemic and will be resumed when possible.

Transfer for treatment by the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) is known as an Extra Contractual Referral (ECR) and occurs when the HSCB approves a consultant’s request to transfer a patient to a provider outside Northern Ireland for assessment or treatment which the consultant considers necessary but which is not available through HSC facilities locally. This is normally to a provider elsewhere in the United Kingdom but may also be to a provider outside the UK where this is clinically justified. Further information on the ECR process is available on the HSCB website.