SDLP Health Spokesperson Mark H Durkan MLA has described the large public expenditure on doctor overtime as a symptom of a failure to increase the number of doctors being trained here.
Today it was revealed that large amounts are being spent to pay doctors overtime across the Trusts with one physician in the Southern Trust receiving £153,000 in overtime payments last year.
The Western Trust, which runs Alnagelvin Hospital, spent £600,000 on overtime payments to consultants and doctors
The British Medical Association say the reason for the large overtime payments was because there was not enough doctors to carry out the work.
The SDLP response to Executive’s Programme for Government, submitted last week, included proposals to address this issue.
Mr Durkan said: “These extraordinary overtime bills are a symptom of the sticking plaster solutions that have been used by the Executive to deal with the problems facing our Health Service.
“Successive Health Ministers have failed utterly to address the root causes of this crisis.
“They have opted for a false economy, paying premium overtime instead of investing in training.
“This astounding lack of foresight and planning means we are spending more money without addressing the problem.
“One of the most basic problems with our Health Service now is the inadequate number of doctors we are training. I
“t is an issue that hasn’t been helped by Executive procrastination over junior doctor contracts. In our submission to the Programme for Government consultation last week the SDLP made dealing with this a priority.
“As part of a range of measures to improve our Health service including a well-deserved pay rise for nurses and other frontline staff, we advocated the creation of a medical school in the North West to increase the number of GP training places to at least 111 per annum with a view to increasing the number of full time equivalent GPs in Northern Ireland to 400 by 2020.
“The Executive needs to act now and put in place long-term solutions that will alleviate pressure on our hospitals and in time our finances. Our Health Service may not survive any further mismanagement,” added the Foyle MLA.
