Ulster Unionist Health spokesperson Alan Chambers MLA has said patient safety must remain the overriding priority as Health Trusts consider savings proposals, warning that financial targets cannot be allowed to dictate decisions about safe patient care.

Alan Chambers said:

“The financial position facing our health service is extremely serious, but nobody should pretend that Health can solve an Executive-wide financial problem on its own.

“The funding available from Westminster is simply not keeping pace with the pressures facing our public services. Yet almost halfway through the financial year, the Executive has still failed to agree a Budget. That has real consequences for patients, staff and services.

“The failure to grasp the opportunity of a three-year Budget has been a major missed opportunity. It could have given Health the certainty to plan, reform services and deliver efficiencies strategically rather than lurching from one annual financial crisis to the next.

“The Ulster Unionist Party accepts that Health must play its part. Where there is duplication or unnecessary bureaucracy, it should be challenged, and difficult decisions will be necessary. We will support genuine efficiencies and taking difficult decisions where they are ultimately the right thing to do. But these latest savings plans are already coming on the back of hundreds of millions of pounds of savings already delivered this year and last.

“But there is also a world of difference between making our health service more efficient and making cuts which compromise patient care.

“We will take time to carefully consider the contents of the Trust savings plans but Robbie Butler, like Mike Nesbitt before him, has been absolutely clear about where that line sits. Patient safety will come first. Trusts won't be allowed to make decisions to hit a financial target regardless of the consequences for patients.

“The answer cannot be to salami-slice frontline services because the wider Executive has failed to get its financial house in order. Nor can Executive parties continue demanding additional spending while collectively failing to even come close to agreeing a process to actually allocate it.

“Westminster must recognise the scale of the pressures facing Northern Ireland, the Executive needs to get a Budget agreed, and Health must continue to spend it’s money wisely. But for the Ulster Unionist Party one overriding principle is non-negotiable - patients will never be used to balance the books.”