Robin Swann votes against budget - leaked letter to Executive colleagues warns of 2% cut to health

Mr Swann told executive colleagues that it “would result in potentially irreparable damage to health and care services”, place patients “at significantly greater risk of coming to actual harm” and multiply “the already intolerable pressures on staff”.

He says the budget means “an unprecedented” cash reduction for health – leaving the department worse off than in the last financial year.

Health received the largest allocation of £7.76bn, followed by the Department of Education who received £2.87bn and the Department of Justice which got £1.26bn.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said it was disappointing that Health Minister Robin Swann had not supported the budget agreed by other Stormont ministers – claiming that the funds the Ulster Unionist health minister had requested would have subsumed the entire budget available. She said 50% of the available budget had been given to health.

UUP boss Doug Beattie has called for an urgent meeting of party leaders to discuss the situation facing the health service.

Minister Swann outlined the consequences for the NHS in Northern Ireland to ministerial colleagues as meaning :

- No budgetary provision for 2024/25 pay settlements – with a recurrence of the serious industrial relations consequences that we have only just succeeded in addressing in relation to 2023/24.

- Restrictions on the use of new drugs and therapies approved in Great Britain leading to lower levels of treatment for our patients.

- A halt to Waiting List Initiative (WLI) activities

- Suspending some vaccination programmes

- Reduction in funding for enhanced GP services for example diabetes, psychology, carers health and palliative care

The budget will now reignite the debate within the Ulster Unionist Party about whether it is better off in opposition.

In a statement yesterday, UUP leader Doug Beattie said his party refuses “to accept the reduction of almost 150 acute hospital beds, the reduction of 1.1 million hours of domiciliary care or the reduction of 500 care home beds that such a cut will force on our health service this year”.

"I have called for an urgent meeting of party leaders where I will ask for every consideration to be given to resolve these unmanageable cuts to our Health Service.

"The Ulster Unionist Party is committed to making our Health Service work, but we cannot sit idly by while it is dismantled by parties who consistently refuse to take ownership of the department. A solution must be urgently found or the results are beyond contemplation".

All of the Stormont parties campaigned heavily on the issue of the health service, but providing the money the minister says the service needs has not been a priority.

Mr Swann said in February that unless there is a guarantee of recurring funding for pay going forward, through changes to how Northern Ireland's Treasury grant is calculated, his department will not have the money to maintain those pay rates in 2024/25, never mind make further awards in years to come.

He also told the health committee last month that there would “be an irony if Assembly members voted through such an outcome, and then continued to fill my mail bag with further demands for more spending across all parts of health and social care”. He added: “Irony would be one word for this. Others may be available”.

The amount allocated to the Alliance-run justice department could also pose some difficult decisions for that party, who are in charge of funding a police service facing unprecedented pressures. Justice has bid for £444m in order, it says, to maintain current services. The finance minister has previously said that other Executive departments have requested £2bn more than the total funds available.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly previously said the budget was “about managing expectations, everyone is aware challenges will remain but we will always fight to get the best deal for Northern Ireland when it comes to the budget”.