
In response to the Minister of Health’s claim of a projected shortfall of £400million within his department, the North Belfast MLA said: “Though the Health Minister continues to denounce any calls for efficiency as vague and unsubstantial, I would urge him to look seriously at areas for improvement throughout his department’s spending and get on with delivery instead of an endless series of consultations and reviews.
“The reality is that there is far too much wastage within the Department of Health, whether it is spending £619million on independent social care without proper procurement processes, hundreds of millions being wasted due to hospital flow being managed inefficiently, or prevention and screening not being prioritised leading to more money being spent on treatment of diseases which could have been caught much earlier.
“The Department of Health cannot continue to spend over half of the Executive’s entire budget into a failing system and kick every difficult decision down the road through consultation exercises, rather than taking action to deliver better services and ease financial pressures. It’s time for the Minister to accept responsibility for making tough decisions and adopt a firmer stance on calls for efficiency and reform in our health system.
“Alliance will continue to call for transformation of our health service, which is currently experiencing unacceptable pressures, to better support its staff and patients, and continue to propose tangible suggestions to improve efficiency throughout the system.”
“The reality is that there is far too much wastage within the Department of Health, whether it is spending £619million on independent social care without proper procurement processes, hundreds of millions being wasted due to hospital flow being managed inefficiently, or prevention and screening not being prioritised leading to more money being spent on treatment of diseases which could have been caught much earlier.
“The Department of Health cannot continue to spend over half of the Executive’s entire budget into a failing system and kick every difficult decision down the road through consultation exercises, rather than taking action to deliver better services and ease financial pressures. It’s time for the Minister to accept responsibility for making tough decisions and adopt a firmer stance on calls for efficiency and reform in our health system.
“Alliance will continue to call for transformation of our health service, which is currently experiencing unacceptable pressures, to better support its staff and patients, and continue to propose tangible suggestions to improve efficiency throughout the system.”