Hamilton hails increases in frontline health service staff

Health Minister Simon Hamilton MLA has welcomed a growth in staffing numbers across the Health and Social Care (HSC) Sector in the past five years.

Between March 2011 and December 2015 there has been an increase across a range of frontline posts including:

• 1,191 more Nurses and Midwives;
• 523 more Allied Health Professionals;
• 275 more Consultants, and
• 73 more Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians.

The Minister said: “Since 2011, spending on Health in Northern Ireland has increased by over half a billion pounds. Crucially, that investment has been targeted at the frontline and in particular increasing the numbers of frontline staff. The total size of the HSC workforce has increased by 3,270 since 2011 with frontline staff accounting for the vast bulk of this rise.

“People across Northern Ireland want to see additional resources for Health going to the frontline and not on bureaucracy. I am pleased that between 2011 and now, the number of nurses and midwives working in our Health service has increased by 9%, the number of consultants has gone up by 21% and the number of allied health professionals has grown by 18%. This has required a significant investment over the last 5 years but is well worth it to ensure our Health Service has the staff it needs.

“I know that some areas of our Health and Social care system faces challenges with recruitment but I know that every effort is being made to resolve these. For example, I recently increased the number of GP training places by 20 and added 15 training places for doctors who have recently graduated through the Foundation Programme at the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency.

“I would like to place on record my thanks to all of the staff across HSC for their hard work and dedication and we are all very grateful and proud of their continued commitment to providing first class services and acre for everyone across Northern Ireland.”