Ulster Unionist election candidate Tom Elliott claims Sinn Fein showed a "lack of support" when it held the health portfolio at Stormont.

He made his comments while industrial strike action by health service staff was being held across Northern Ireland, including in Fermanagh.

"When Sinn Fein held the Health ministry they refused to resolve pay disparity for Northern Ireland health service staff with that of staff in other parts of the United Kingdom. Now there is a major crisis in the local health service.

"This all comes after a latest series of figures confirmed once again targets against key measurements such as appointment waiting times and cancer treatment times were all far below a safe standard," said Mr. Elliott.

He said never before in the history of Northern Ireland "have so many people been forced to wait, and to wait for so long".

"It is a total scandal that so many people, young and old, are being forced to wait often in agonising pain and anxiety just because the local system can't cope.

“For instance, the latest figures for September this year show that in just the Western and Southern Health Trusts there were over 25,000 patients waiting longer than a year for a first appointment with a consultant. Similarly in September only 63.7 per cent of patients attending the A&E at South West Acute Hospital were seen within the four hour target, even though the official and clinically justified target is 95 per cent.

“Our waiting times would simply not be tolerated anywhere else – including in the rest of the UK or the Republic of Ireland," he said.

Mr. Elliott said it is "an absolute disgrace" that there is "nothing being done to even slow down the deterioration, never mind reverse the waits".

“In 2016 I voted in Westminster for the Government to review the NHS funding in the Autumn Statement to address the underfunding of the NHS and guarantee sustainable financing of the NHS. If Stormont was functioning we could have had a local health minister in place and they would have long started taking steps to tackle the frightening scale of the problem. If they hadn’t, I’m in no doubt they would have been long forced out of office by now and replaced by someone was prepared to take action.

“Yet, with no Minister and no realistic prospect of a functioning Assembly anytime soon I think it has now reached the point when Westminster needs to step in and take control of the situation. Perhaps then patients, and the NHS staff that care for them, could at least have a chance of actions being taken to resolve the unbearable problems of present," he said.