THE Health Minister has given assurances that none of a reported 3,000 jobs at risk will go until he is assured such moves would represent real efficiencies rather than "service cuts by another name".
Minister Michael McGimpsey was speaking yesterday after a document leaked to the media claimed the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust was planning to make 3,000 employees redundant.
Mr McGimpsey responded yesterday that all departments are requi
red to secure three per cent efficiency savings as part of the Assembly’s Comprehensive Spending Review and that £146 million of efficiencies had already been achieved under the previous CSR.
“These savings will be re-invested back into improving front line health and social services,” he said.
“I have asked all trusts to submit plans for proposed efficiency savings in their area.
“I am considering these draft plans for the years ahead and no decisions have yet been reached.
“Until I am assured that these are real efficiencies and not simply service cuts by another name, I will not be supporting specific efficiency proposals.”
He said such proposals reflect the views of health care staff on the ground and that there will be “difficult decisions to be made”.
Albert Mills, senior regional organiser with Unite in Belfast, said: “Management may cloak the proposed job cuts as streamlining costs but at the end of the day it will mean services to those who matter most, the patients, will be hit hardest.”
The full article contains 250 words and appears in News Letter newspaper.
