In addition to the £40m for waiting lists, a further £7.6m has been secured to meet a range of priority pressures across essential front line services. Included in this are:
- £4m for Trusts and primary care to manage increased demand during the busy winter months.
- £0.8m for the Family Fund, will enable approximately 1,500 local families with children and young people with disabilities to avail of the financial support to relieve the financial burden which these families would otherwise face.
- Funding for additional insulin pumps to help meet continued demand
- Further investment in children’s and other essential services.
- £1.6m for psychological therapies which will support cognitive behaviour therapy, counselling, family support and psycho-analytic therapies.
NI Minister Simon Hamilton said: “This funding boost for Health will immediately go towards tackling the significant pressures my Department faces. I am committed to developing a world class Health and Social Care system to serve the people of Northern Ireland and that means addressing waiting lists. This investment will improve the lives of thousands of people and marks the start of my plan to bring waiting lists under control. I recognise this will not be easy and unfortunately will take time to restore but I am determined to succeed.”