Monthly Archives: August 2017

The DUP say £70 million worth of cuts Northern Ireland health trusts must make over the next seven months is the result of Sinn Féin’s “abstentionism”. The £10m per month cuts were confirmed by the Department of Health yesterday. Each of Northern Ireland’s five Health and Social Care Trusts announced an ‘extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors’ to take place at five various offices on Thursday, where they are expected to outline their plan to make savings. The cuts, said DUP MLA Christopher Stalford, are the result of Sinn Fein’s “refusal to form an Executive”. The annual spending for Northern Ireland health department — along with all the other departments — is usually agreed in an overall annual budget in around December or January, covering the financial year beginning in April. However, amid the ongoing political crisis at Stormont, no budget was agreed. In March, civil servants – not … Continue reading →

East Antrim Ulster Unionist Assemblyman Roy Beggs has welcomed a commitment by the Northern Health and Social Care Trust to recycle equipment. Last year, the Trust recycled 13,699 items, 78 per cent of items that were returned and recycled for reuse to other service users. The Trust also aims to recycle component parts of equipment that cannot be reissued to service users. In a statement, Mr. Beggs MLA said: “I had previously been in contact with one of the local health trusts in Northern Ireland relating to the apparent reluctance of NHS staff to take equipment which had been provided during temporary illness. I pressed the Trust on what plans they had to provide an organised method of providing convenient collection points, so that the public can be encouraged to return items such as zimmer frames, walking sticks or crutches for reuse.” The UUP health spokesperson added “Following the welcome … Continue reading →

Margaret Henderson-McCarroll August 16 2017 Prosecutors in Northern Ireland are considering whether the three-year jail term given to a woman for killing a Co Antrim pensioner is unduly lenient. Eddie Girvan, a retired plumber, was 67 when he was discovered bound, gagged and stabbed in his Greenisland home in January last year. Margaret Henderson-McCarroll, a 31 year-old mother-of-two who had been living at a hostel in Verner Street, Belfast, admitted his manslaughter claiming diminished responsibility. On Monday she was given a six-year sentence for his manslaughter, with three to be served behind bars. She claimed to have been intoxicated at the time on a mixture of heroin and crystal meth, insisting she was acting in self-defence over an argument about money she alleged Mr Girvan owed her for sex. The sentence prompted outrage from a close friend of Mr Girvan as well as local politicians. Yesterday a spokesperson for the … Continue reading →