Comment / NI trust finance warning

Concerns have been raised in the Northern Ireland Assembly over local health and social care (HSC) trust finances after underlying pressures were uncovered.

In a report on the health and social care sector, the Assembly Public Accounts Committee said all but one of the five trusts broke even in 2014/15 – the Western Trust with a £6.6m deficit. But the committee said this masked an underlying funding gap totalling £131m. Overall, the five trusts have a £4bn budget and the committee said in recent years they have relied on significant in-year funding to avoid deficits.

Committee chair Michaela Boyle said health and social care bodies were facing an unprecedented financial squeeze, though they had been more generously funded than other parts of the public sector, and demand was rising.

‘Putting the HSC trusts on a sustainable footing is a major challenge unless there is a significant change in funding or transformation of services. One significant problem the trusts face is they are unable to carry forward unused funds from one year to the next, impeding their ability to undertake longer term financial planning.’

The decline in financial stability was mirrored by widespread breaches of key waiting times for elective, emergency and outpatient care. Health minister Simon Hamilton said the report confirmed the need for far-reaching reform ‘if we want to create a world-class health and social care system and, importantly, put it on a sustainable financial footing’.