£30m Allocated To Health Service

£30m funding has been allocated to the Department of Health in the January Monitoring Round.

The allocation from the Executive will be spent on unscheduled admissions and winter pressures, children's services, quality and safety of services, domiciliary care services and elective care.

Finance Minister Simon Hamilton made the announcement today. It follows a major incident last month at the A & E department of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, in which extra staff were called in and extra beds opened to relieve pressure.

It was reported that at one stage 42 people were waiting on trolleys and staff described the situation as "horrendous".

Welcoming today's funding, Health Minister Edwin Poots said: "This is significant funding which will play a critical role in helping to address a range of pressures in services that affect the most vulnerable in our society, including patients, looked after children and our elderly population.

"At this time of year, there is a notable rise in emergency admissions pushed up by many factors including increased numbers of patients with complex conditions, higher levels of infection and adverse weather conditions. This funding will be used to address this seasonal pressure and directly help patients."

Also in today's monitoring round, Finance Minister Hamilton announced £35m of loan funding would be allocated to the new Belfast Campus of the University of Ulster.

Other allocations included £24m for the Department for Regional Development (DRD) mainly for roads maintenance, £6m for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and £2.5m for the Department for Social Development (DSD).

£15m has been set aside to meet penalties imposed by Westminster for the Executive's failure to push through welfare reforms.

"I remain disappointed by the lack of progress on welfare reform, whilst the cost of delay this year is £15m, this will quickly escalate to some £200m and will have a damaging effect on our public services," the Minister said.

(IT/CD)