Peter McGuire Workers Party Representative for Foyle has called on the New Health Minister to examine the number of Health Structures across Northern Ireland before reconfiguring Local Hospital Services.

Mr McGuire said the workers party is calling on the minister to examine the number of health service structures across Northern Ireland before reconfiguring hospitals and services. He must do what the previous minister, the department and the Assembly health committee failed to do, and examine the number of bureaucratic structures that drain hundreds and millions of pounds from the overall health budget. He must ask are they fit for purpose?do they add value to the delivery of quality health care for patients and services users? Is all this level of bureaucracy necessary? They were originally set up to facilitate the internal market but the rush to privatisation will surely have changed those plans.

The Workers Party in our submission to the health consultations have challenged the previous minister and the department if they could justify the fact that we have six health trusts each with their own senior and middle management structures, trust boards, chairs, executive directors, non-executive directors. These multiple structures are unnecessarily siphoning finances from the overall budget of the health service. The news that the highest paid executive in our health service because of £40,000 in pay awards in the past two years is jaw dropping. Staff who have not had their pay increase because of a lack of funding will quite rightly be angry as will patients who have seen services cut because of funding issues.

Mr McGuire added people are questioning why our health service senior management is so highly paid the answer is simple, senior medical staff get merit payments, senior management get performance related pay (bonuses) and it is worth remembering that these are the people who are driving the cuts and changes to our services. Vested interests who will never hold the mirror up to themselves.