News / Tight settlement for Northern Ireland NHS

Northern Ireland’s health service faces a tough three years despite receiving more than expected in January’s budget, finance staff have said.

In a range of measures, finance minister Peter Robinson gave the NHS an extra £10m a year over the three-year allocation period. The funds are earmarked for mental health services, but he also appeared to relax his department’s tight grip on the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety’s financial flexibility.

He said the Department could keep any savings made over and above the 3% efficiency target and it will also have first call on the first £20m returned to the executive from other departments through the in-year monitoring programme.

Finance staff said the ability to keep additional efficiency savings was something of a red herring, as the service would struggle to remove the 9% they are required to find over the next three years, never mind find additional savings.

They added the extra funding would barely cover cost pressures and that health spending was falling short of other parts of the UK. Health minister Michael McGimpsey had put the gap between NHS spending in Northern Ireland and England at £300m and warned this could double over the next three years.

Mr McGimpsey said in total resources for new service developments over the next three years had doubled from £145m in the draft budget to £300m, though he conceded the increase was not as much as he would have liked.

‘While it will not allow me to take forward all the service improvements I would have wanted, in light of the financial circumstances facing the executive, I believe it is the best outcome possible,’ he added.