Hospital Beds Boost for Belfast

The Health Minister, Michael McGimspey has announced that he will not now have to close 150 Hospital beds in Belfast. Last month the Belfast Health Trust had proposed closing the beds, some in the Royal Victoria Hospital and some in the Belfast City Hospital, to help cut costs. The extra money he has received to help deal with swine flu means he can now reject those plans. Other Executive departments have agreed to surrender a total of just over £39m towards the cost of swine flu and more cash will come from unspent budgets.

Michael McGimpsey said it would relieve some of the pressure on health trusts. In a statement, the minister said that everyone was "only too aware of the significant financial difficulties" facing his department and the heath and social care service. He went on to say, "We have the challenge of finding £700m in efficiency savings, coupled with addressing the years of under-investment which means our services are simply not as good as those in the rest of the UK."  He also added that he had given "careful consideration" to contingency plans put forward by the five health trusts to address funding shortfalls across the service. "Now that I have clarification on my total budget for 2009/10, I am able to reject those proposals which would have had a significant impact on front-line services and had caused concern among the public."

However, he said he still had to take "some difficult decisions" and warned that "trusts still face considerable challenges in balancing their books". The minister said he would be writing to the five health trusts to advise them of a "wide range of stringent cost control measures" which he intends to introduce.