£40m allocated to help struggling health service

By David Hunter

An extra £40 million is being allocated to the Health Service in Northern Ireland in a bid to alleviate financial pressures. 

The cash is being released by the Department of Finance in the absense of a functioning Stormont execuitve. 

Earlier this year, the Health and Social Care trust was told to start a consultation process to make £70million of savings in the absense of a functioning Government. 

With no Minister's in place, Government departments couldn't be allocated funds, meaning they were set by a senior civil servant. 

Each department was allocated budgets based on last year's spending, but some cash was still tied up and couldn't be distributed. 

Health chiefs say the £40million allocated today will help alleviate short term pressure, but long term transformation is needed.

An expert Panel, led by Professor Bengoa, recomended a major reform of the NHS so that resources could be maximised.

Money was being set aside to begin that work before Stormont collapsed, but is now stalled. 

Of the £70 million saving plan proposed by the trusts, £31 million impacted on frontline services.

Initial assessments estimate savings of £430 million and £670 million will have to be made in 2018/19 and 2019/20 respectively to maintain existing service levels.