Surgery waiting times for certain major operations are set to almost triple as a result of the £200m plus Health Service cuts in Northern Ireland.

Patients requiring orthopaedic or urology procedures are to see the NHS's target wait rise from 13 to 36 weeks, according to the Department of Health.

Those needing heart operations will see waiting times double to 26 weeks.

The tangible impact of the budget reductions was outlined to Stormont's Health Committee by senior departmental officials.

Health trusts will be required to cut back on agency and locum staff and a number of planned service developments will not go ahead.

The details emerged 48 hours after Health Minister Michael McGimpsey warned that frontline services would be hit by the proposed multi-million cuts.

The Stormont Executive's plan to save £400m this year will see £113m shaved off the Health budget.

That burden comes on top of £111m Mr McGimpsey has already been ordered to find through efficiency savings.

He also has to pay a £13m bill to cover costs of dealing with the swine flu pandemic.

All those cutbacks were set in train before the recent general election.

And the Northern Ireland Executive will face further hard decisions as a result of the additional £128m in spending cuts outlined in the initial round of savings by the new liberal conservative Government.