Despite Northern Ireland securing an extra £300m for the health budget in the hung Parliament deal with the Tories, plans have been revealed that will slash £70m from health trust funding, due to Stormont’s failure to form an Executive.
On Tuesday August 22, Northern Ireland’s health trusts faced the biggest cash crises in their history, as they were forced to find savings of £10m a month. The five trusts are expected to release their cost saving proposals soon, with early predictions indicating that agency workers, locums, and other temporary staff will be the first affected.
While the Department of Health has told the trust that their priority must be “quality of care and patient safety”, we may worryingly see a reduction in the number of hospital beds available, as well as a number of non-emergency procedures being delayed, or even cancelled, due to the cost saving measures.
A six-week public consultation started on August 24, after which the trusts will draw up their final plans, and in the likely continued absence of a Health Minister, there could be a further public debate, particularly if some of the temporary measures look set to become long-term.
With a health service that was already under considerable strain before the cuts, pressure is now mounting for a functional power-sharing government at Stormont.
Although there is considerable agreement among the main political parties in Northern Ireland that the healthcare system needs major reform, their failure, so far, to form a functioning Executive is putting all of the public, particularly those currently seeking medical treatment, at risk.
The well-publicised GP crises, as well as the ever-growing length of NHS waiting lists, and the pressure on healthcare staff to perform in underfunded conditions, will only be further negatively impacted by this axe in funding – a direct result of our current political deadlock.