Ulster Unionist MLA Sam Gardiner has demanded there be no cuts to front line health services such as child cardiac surgery unless cuts to the health bureaucracy have been exhausted
Mr Gardiner, who sits on the Stormont Health Committee, was speaking following a motion on the review of the children's congenital heart services at the Royal Victoria Hospital which found that although the services were safe they were no longer sustainable.
The Upper Bann MLA said:
“I am anxious that major dramatic changes to front line medical care in such a sensitive area, which involves young children, should be avoided if at all possible.
If money is part of the problem I simply do not accept that front line medical care should be reduced in such an area if there are still savings to be made by reducing health service bureaucracy and I pressed the Minister on this matter.”
Mr Gardiner also raised concerns that the review of the health service in Northern Ireland was being conducted by a local bureaucrat who was himself part of the system and that someone from outside the system might have been more objective.
Finally Mr Gardiner asked: “Could the future of paediatric congenital cardiac services in Northern Ireland be seen in some other broader context or reset within a wider group of services, which would enable children's clinical specialisms to survive in this Province?”