Efficiency of NI Hospitals Questioned

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has said that hospitals in Northern Ireland could perform more efficiently.  Mr. Wilson said he understood provisional figures have estimated that hospital staff productivity in NI falls below that of England by just over 12%. The MLA and MP for East Antrim's statement came in response to an assembly question posed by his DUP colleague Mervyn Storey. Mr. Storey had asked the Finance Minister for his assessment of the efficiency of the health service in NI compared to that in the rest of the UK.

Mr. Wilson responded that there was "scope for the health minister to continue to drive forward improvements in productivity within the Health Service and to reducing that productivity gap thus releasing extra funding for frontline services". He pointed to provisional figures from the DHSSPS Productivity Working Group which he said had estimated that hospital staff productivity in NI falls below that of England by just over 12%.

However the UUP's Michael McGimpsey responded by stating that efficiency had increased over the past two years. Mr. McGimspey, Northern Ireland's Health Minister said that this was a "significant achievement... when we consider demand for services is increasing". He further added that that the figure of 12% "cannot currently be used comparatively due to differences in English and NI data", as well as stating that productivity in Northern Ireland has increased by 7% over the past two years.  "This is a significant achievement and is even more impressive when we consider that demand for services is increasing at an unprecedented rate of some 9%."

This most recent exchange continues the war of words which has been going for a number of months between the DUP and the health minister over health funding in Northern Ireland.