NI health budget ‘needs extra £400m to stand still’

The current health budget of £6.5bn in Northern Ireland requires an additional £400m in 2022/23 “just to stand still”, Stormont’s Health Committee has heard.

Brigitte Worth is a senior finance official with the Department of Health.

She said that without extra funding it would be “extremely difficult” to deliver on rebuilding strategies for sectors such as elective care, cancer, mental health and urgent care.

In the past year, the department has had additional Covid-19 funding.

She said she was concerned about the department’s financial position in the current financial year of 2021/22, but “perhaps even more concerned” about 2022/23.

“Whilst welcome, the temporary Covid funds we have received are helping to mask the scale of the underlying financial pressures that are building up across our services that I outlined earlier,” she added.

“The overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt long-term, whilst the additional Covid-related funding we have received will be short-term and we currently have no sense of how these pressures will be addressed in the future.”