Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FEARS FOR FERTILITY
IVF freeze in bid to save £70m
A TEMPORARY halt on fertility aid for couples in Ulster is among a raft of proposals aimed at delivering a £70million budget cut.
Access to the Belfast-based Regional Fertility Centre for an estimated 320 new patients would be deferred until next April under the plan detailed by the Belfast Health Trust.
They would then join a waiting list that is already up to nine months long for certain treatments.
Belfast is one of five trusts in the Northern Ireland.
It has been instructed by Stormont’s Department of Health to collectively save £70million to ensure the books balance at the end of the financial year in March.
The trusts are set to reduce reliance on agency staff and locum doctors, while the number of hospital beds available is also due to be cut in some areas.
The level of domiciliary care provided, such as home visits, will also be reduced under the plans, with limits put on new residential care places.
The five sets of proposals were unveiled at a series of public meetings yesterday afternoon.
A public consultation exercise will now run for the next six weeks.
Public sector union Nipsa branded the consultation exercise a “sham”.
Without the intervention of Stormont powersharing, civil servants at the Department of Health must work within the available budget.