Northern Ireland NHS: Baroness Kate Hoey urges Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to appoint health commissioner to take urgent decisions

The chief executives of the region’s six health trusts wrote to Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris telling him that pay awards cannot depend on work being done to restore the Assembly.

Northern Ireland’s health service is facing significant budget pressures and the Department of Health has said there is no funding to provide a pay rise for workers in line with those already awarded in England.

As a result, a range of health related unions have engaged in strike action across Northern Ireland – or are planning to.

In August it was revealed that 416,022 people in Northern Ireland are waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment, an increase of 14,821 on the previous quarter.

Almost half (203,682) of the patients were waiting for more than 52 weeks, the BBC reported.

Against this backdrop, former Labour cabinet Minister Kate Hoey asked the Prime Minister to appoint a special commissioner, as she argued happens in some situations in England.

"As you know there is no government in Northern Ireland and it is highly unlikely that Stormont will be back in the immediate future," she wrote to Rishi Sunak this week.

"Of the issues that people in Northern Ireland care about, the most important is the state of the National Health Service. Long waiting lists, far worse than in England are causing greatpublic concern.

"Most of the reasons for the problems are the fact that for many years even when the Assembly has been sitting, political parties have not been prepared to take difficult decisions.Even when there have been independent inquiries with sensible reform proposals - like Bengoa in 2016 - nothing happened."

In 2016 Professor Rafael Bengoa chaired an expert panel which formulated the latest of a series of ambitious plans to reform the NHS in Northern Ireland. However the plans have not been implemented.

"As the Prime Minister of the whole United Kingdom you have the responsibility to step in and take the decisions the Executive won't," Baroness Hoey added.

"Sooner or later, there is going to have to be more direct governance as we had so often after Stormont was first prorogued [suspended] in 1972.

"I would therefore ask that you seriously consider sending in a Commissioner with the power to sort out some of the immediate problems of the Health Service, but also to take those long-term decisions that nobody else can or will."

Commissioners are appointed in local government in England when councillors have conspicuously failed in their duties, she argued.

"I am sure that a Commision with significant powers would be welcomed by a large majority of people in Northern Ireland. Most are not clamouring for the Executive to be restored as they know if it was back,It would once again duck controversial decisions."

A Northern Ireland Office spokesman responded: "In light of the budget pressures and the unsustainability of public finances in NI, the Secretary of State has used powers to ensure that work can begin across the NI departments to identify the options that are available to a restored Executive to get the budget under control. In recognition of the pressures on the health service, over half of the total budget, a total allocation of £7.3 billion, is earmarked for health with the objective of protecting frontline services.

"Successive reviews on Northern Ireland’s health service have stressed the need to reform and modernise, and that structural efficiencies should be made.

"It remains the Government’s top priority to restore the Executive and for locally accountable political leaders to take fundamental decisions on Northern Ireland's public services and deliver better outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland.”