‘I shall battle on despite insufficient resources’ - McGimpsey
AS the executive’s latest spat sees threat and counter-threat over the health budget, health minister Michael McGimpsey tells Bryan Gray that he has no plans to resign
AS health minister Michael McGimpsey defended his position, the rows at Stormont deepened yesterday when first minister Peter Robinson revealed if the executive had more money then the health service would not be in line to get it.
Speaking to the News Letter, the health minister admitted that Northern Ireland is the worst funded region in the UK in terms of healthcare.
Denying the health service was in meltdown following last week’s damaging claims regarding the Southern Trust, the UUP man said a “great deal of scaremongering” had been going on since Christmas.
However, Mr Robinson told the BBC yesterday other departments had taken a greater financial hit. “The hardest hit at the moment is education, DRD have a very strong case for additional funding, DETI and environment also want more,” he said. “We are having to deal with £4bn less.”
Mr Robinson said he had nothing personal against Mr McGimpsey. “There was never a pup’s chance of the Ulster Unionist Party or the SDLP ever voting for the budget. If we had doubled the amount of money we had for their departments they would still have voted against it.
“We have the sheer hypocrisy of the Ulster Unionist Party advocating the level of cuts that we are facing in Northern Ireland and then when they are applied in Northern Ireland protesting and saying it should be for all the other government departments but not theirs.”
Mr Robinson asked where the £800m Mr McGimpsey wants should come from – “should it be from Danny Kennedy’s budget or should they close down schools?”
“The health budget is better than any other single department’s budget,” said Mr Robinson. “He got the best deal around that table. He wanted to go to the electorate and say, look how badly done I am.”
Mr McGimpsey has come under attack recently from executive colleagues, including the first minister and deputy first minister, as disagreement continues over the draft budget.
Speaking to the News Letter, Mr McGimpsey said he was determined to remain in position, despite the political fallout.
“I have a duty to deliver health and social care to the population of Northern Ireland,” he said.
“My brief is to deliver that care, free at the point of delivery. That is my principle, I am sticking to it and will continue to do so.
“It is unfortunate under the draft budget the executive are not according the sufficient resources to allow me to do that but I shall battle on,” he added.
Commenting on the whistleblowing by medical staff at Craigavon Area Hospital regarding X-ray provision, Mr McGimpsey said: “There has been a great deal of scaremongering going on about the health service since Christmas. It started with unfounded scares around swine flu and a couple of days ago further unfounded scares around one of our major acute hospitals in Craigavon.”
He added: “Where I see concerns I immediately investigate them. For example, I have announced an independent inquiry into the reporting of diagnoses in the dental hospital and I have also instituted an inquiry into the reporting of X-rays at Altnagelvin.”
While downplaying a crisis, the minister admitted the health service in the province was “very much stretched”.
“I meet staff on an almost daily basis and they all tell me that they are coping but they are stretched to capacity. There is not enough money in the system to pay our bills but staff are responding magnificently to get the sort of health and social care our population require.”
Mr McGimpsey has been at loggerheads with executive colleagues in recent months, claiming further cuts under the proposed draft budget would have serious ramifications for his department.
“We are now the worst funded health service in the UK and that is official Treasury figures and that is not where we were four years ago,” he said.
“To deliver the same health service as England, we would need a further £600m. Under the draft budget, that gap will widen to £800m. Effectively the health service in Northern Ireland is going backwards.”
Standing by his earlier comments that the executive was “dysfunctional”, Mr McGimpsey maintained verbal attacks by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness only served to demonstrate a “lack of cohesion”.
The Ulster Unionist minister maintained delivering health and social care was a “moral” issue and should not be used as a “political football”.
“Delivering health and social care is a moral issue and I’ve been at pains for the last number of years to say that people should not be using health as a political football.
“I believe it is increasingly the case, certainly since Christmas, that it has become a political knockout and I’m sad to say that is likely to be the case in the lead up to the assembly election.”
He added: “I am asking the executive to deliver what the people of Northern Ireland want. Their number one priority is the health service and it should be properly funded.”
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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