Northern Ireland's health minister will face calls on Tuesday for her department to come up with a long term strategy to address the problems in the NHS.

It will come during a debate on the crisis in the health service at a time when it is facing record waiting lists and the prospect of additional winter pressures.

Assembly member Carmel Hanna, of the SDLP, has tabled a motion before the assembly calling for urgent action to be taken.

Last week it was revealed that hospital waiting lists in the province had hit another all time high.

Mrs Hanna said: "We need a strategy. We've had a lot of reviews and consultations but we haven't made any decisions. I want to take the debate on from there."

Funding fears

There are now nearly 57,000 people waiting for treatment in the province, a rise of 6,500 in the last year.

Health minister Bairbre de Brun said that the rise was of concern but that recent additional resources would help alleviate the situation.

The figures came a week after the Northern Ireland Assembly allocated an extra �15m to address the problem.

However, there have been fears that the funding could be used to pay off health service debts.

It has been suggested the �15m would be used for extra cancer operations, cardiac surgery and additional care in the community services.

The assembly is also being asked to give final approval to the finance minister's �6bn spending plan for the coming year.