The minister said the main reason his underspend is at 1.4% and not the target of 1% is because he has generated an extra £20million in efficiency savings from the pharmaceutical budget.
He said: “All parties and members encouraged me to implement efficiency savings and that is what I am doing. I make no apology for this. My primary focus is increased investment for frontline services and I very much regret that once again some people are attempting to play politics with our health service.
“As agreed in the final budget settlement I have full flexibility over my budget which means that over the next three years, I will be able to redirect any future savings back into frontline patient care.
“While I would have liked to have kept underspend to within the target of 1%, I welcome the reduction in prescription costs which led to this underspend. Our outcome is still lower than the percentages achieved by most other departments, in fact only one other department achieved less than 1% and DHSSPS is the next best.”
Mr McGimpsey pointed to his capital underspend of 1.5% which he said was an excellent outcome and is much better than anything achieved by other departments.
He concluded: “Moving forward, it is a fact that Health and Social Care simply does not have sufficient resources to meet the increasing demand for services. This means that available resources have to be prioritised and managed as effectively and efficiently as possible. I am committed to doing that.
“Health and Social Care bodies have shown again that they can maintain financial discipline, achieve breakeven, deliver on challenging targets and provide services more efficiently.”
Notes to Editors:
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