Health and social care faces increased demands

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has today said that increased demand for hospital services demonstrates the need for more investment, not less.

The Minister also commended health and social care (HSC) staff for their continued commitment and hard work given the increasing pressure on services.

The Minister was speaking following the publication of the 'Annual Northern Ireland Hospital Inpatient Activity Data for 2008/09' which shows:

· almost 584,000 admissions to hospital throughout Northern Ireland - a 12% increase since 2004/05
· a 19.3% increase in day case admissions since 2004/05; and
· a 7% increase in the number of inpatient admissions.

The Minister said: "Demand for health services has been increasing at an unprecedented rate. I have said before that health and social care is coming under increasing pressure to meet the needs of the public, within a very limited budget.

"Staff work incredibly hard and I want to thank them again for stepping up to the mark. Our service continues to deliver life saving and life changing services everyday to more people. Patients are also seeing the benefits of our increased efficiency.

"The excellent efforts of health and social care should not however exclude the fact that the service is underfunded. Our funding is still some £600million behind England and if we do not protect health funding we will continue fall even further behind."