Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson, Roy Beggs MLA, has welcomed the announcement of additional money to tackle hospital waiting lists across Northern Ireland but has warned that using resources that had been intended to transform the service is simply kicking the can further down the road.

Roy Beggs said: 

“The problems in our Health Service are totally unprecedented. Never before in the NHS’s 70 year history have so many local people been waiting, and for such appalling lengths of time.

“It’s despicable that the only choice for many of the local 275,000 patients waiting for an appointment is between having their ailments managed with pain relief or to pay often huge sums of money to have treatments or procedures carried out in the private sector.

“Whilst I welcome the announcement of this funding - and it will certainly come as longed-for relief for the patients that it will help - the reality is by diverting money away from transforming the service, the Health Department is simply delaying tackling the root cause of the waiting list crisis.   I hope that the Department will now be maximising the use of NHS resources to enable more patients to be treated in our hospitals and minimise the use of short term agencies to temporarily adjust list sizes.

“In recent weeks the DUP were at pains to portray the recent budget as a good deal for Northern Ireland’s public services, when in reality it fell far short of what key public services such as the health service need just to stand still.

“The 2.6% budget uplift the health service is set to receive next year is barely above inflation and far below the 6% it needs to stand still, so I fear the problems will only continue to get far worse before they get better.”