THE DIFFICULTIES in the Northern Ireland health service are “made in Northern Ireland and have nothing to do with [chancellor of the exchequer] George Osborne,” Stormont Minister for Health Michael McGimpsey has claimed.
Outlining a series of cost-cutting measures which were less severe than feared, Mr McGimpsey insisted current funding problems were directly linked to efficiencies ordered last year by Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson.
The Stormont Executive meets tomorrow to discuss the £128 million cuts included in the £6 billion package outlined on Monday by the new British government.
“This is a made-in-Northern Ireland budget cut – £370 million reduced last year and health paying the lion’s share. The next cuts we know are going to come out of London. In other parts of the UK they are smart enough to ring-fence health. At the very least that should be happening in Northern Ireland,” Mr McGimpsey said.
He added that the policing and justice budget has been protected. “Surely patients are as important as prisoners,” he said. “Surely cardiac services or children’s services are as important as policing and justice.” He said money should come from the treasury’s block grant, worth more than £9 billion annually, to pay for these.
Health workers would not face compulsory redundancies, Mr McGimpsey added. Money would be saved where possible by cutting back on relatively expensive locum, agency and bank staff throughout the service. “While demand for services has increased at an unprecedented rate, the resources to match have simply not followed,” Mr McGimpsey said. Implicitly criticising the spending policy of the Minister for Finance, Mr McGimpsey added: “We have had to find £700 million of efficiency saving, £111 million this year alone, which has been further coupled with the recent £113 million cut to my budget. My department has also been hit by a further £13 million penalty for dealing with the swine flu pandemic.”
Chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride warned that cutting health expenditure would have dire long-term effects. “Good healthcare costs,” he said. “Poor health costs society considerably more.”
Other Stormont Ministers have announced changes to their spending plans.
New Minister for Social Development Alex Attwood announced a regeneration for a rundown section of Belfast city centre was now on hold. The development of a square mile of the northern city centre, estimated to cost up to £360 million, is now on hold.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, meanwhile, has proposed that Ministers and senior civil servants take a 5 per cent pay cut.
Declan O’Loan has lost the SDLP whip following his call for discussions on a single nationalist party. Mr O’Loan was told of the measures taken against him by party leader Margaret Ritchie at Stormont yesterday. SDLP colleagues reacted with fury after Mr O’Loan’s statement, which was withdrawn within three hours of being issued on Monday.