The Northern Ireland health service was never far from the headlines during 2002 - usually for all the wrong reasons.

Waiting lists continued their interminable climb, reaching a series of all-time highs through the year and finishing at over 60,000 people - the longest queue in the UK.

In February, the BBC rang around the countries of the European Union and found Northern Ireland's total at that time was also the worst in Europe.

Trolley waits too were an ever present problem.

Throughout the year, a number of people waiting for a bed in accident and emergency departments were a feature in most hospitals.

Craigavon, and the Ulster and Mater in Belfast, were the hospitals in most difficulty.

Record numbers of people are waiting for treatment

An announcement was made in July of an extra 100 beds - split between Craigavon, the Mater and Antrim. But anyone expecting them to come into use before this winter would be sadly disappointed.

Officials from Craigavon went to the Philippines to recruit nurses to staff its new beds - hopefully from March.

As for the Mater and Antrim, their new ward accommodation will not be available until early 2004.

But 20 extra beds at the Ulster - which were announced in the summer of 2000 - have just come into use.

In July, construction work finally began on Northern Ireland's long-awaited cancer centre at the City hospital in Belfast.

It is to replace Belvoir Park hospital. But because it will not be ready until Christmas 2005 at the earliest, two new radiotherapy machines are being installed in the interim at Belvoir.

Construction work finally began on NI's long-awaited cancer centre at the City hospital in Belfast

The concrete bunkers to house the new equipment have been built - at a cost to the Northern Ireland health service of �500,000 apiece. The bunkers will be redundant in about three years' time.

Looking to the future, an announcement by the government in London in late November, will fundamentally change how health service jobs are evaluated - and how much staff are paid.

If the trade unions accept the NHS modernisation proposals, then sweeping changes will be introduced affecting more than one million health service employees throughout the UK.

For instance, nurses are expected to receive a substantial pay hike in three years' time and it is hoped this will make recruitment and retention of the workforce easier.

That is in the long term. In the short to medium term, horrendous problems are looming.

Trolley waits and waiting lists will worsen - and the rise of recent years in the number of people needing to be treated as emergency medical admissions shows no sign of diminishing.

'Stretched system'

This will put an already stretched system under further strain.

Finally, as in previous years, it would be hard to underestimate the degree of frustration felt by health service staff, for example, at the lack of implementation of key health decisions, such as where Northern Ireland's acute hospitals are to be - and therefore which hospitals are to lose their life-saving services.

2002 brought the latest in a long line of documents detailing the arguments.

The current minister, Des Browne, has promised a decision by the end of January. Getting a decision has taken six years - implementing it fully is likely to take at least as long.