UH/1713

Bomb treatment bill to exceed £6 million
BY: JOHN McCUSKER

HEALTH authorities expect the bill for treating those injured and traumatised in the Omagh bombing to be close to £6.5 million.
The estimated figure was revealed last week following consultation between Sperrin Lakeland Trust and the Western Health and Social Services Board.
Announcing the figure, the Board's Director of Finance, Stephen Lindsay, said the costing took into account the treatment of victims over a four year period.
As patients are discharged, expenses were changing almost on a daily basis, but the Northern Ireland Office had given an undertaking to local health chiefs that they would pick up the tab, he said.
Together with the 29 who died, almost 400 people suffered injuries, many of them serious, after the 500lb device exploded on August 15.
The enormous cost of providing care for the injured, together with the hundreds psychologically scarred by the atrocity, has led to a financial crisis for local health authorities.
A total of £2 million has been earmarked for treating victims this year and next. And the remainder of the £6.5m will be required for the long-term care of patients over the next four years.
The total figure had not been included in the Board's financial plans, but it is expected the Government will step in to provide financial backing, said Mr Lindsay.
During his address to members of the local Health Council, the finance director also revealed that the Board had laid aside a total of £4 million to cover forthcoming clinical negligence claims.
Outlining details of the Board's balance sheet, Mr Lindsay said that although the WHSSB had about £6 in assets at the beginning of this financial year, most of the cash was tied up, and by the end of the year "the drawers were going to be cleared out."
Towards the end of the summer, the results of a comprehensive review were announced and a White Paper produced by the Government.
It indicated that a total of £18 billion was being invested in the Health Service over the length of this Parliament.
However, when these figures were broken down, it was discovered that only half that amount was actually being invested, he said.
Nevertheless, the cash injection had to be welcomed as it was urgently required to provide vitally needed services.
But much of what the Government was paying out was already 'earmarked' for particular services, and the Western Board would not know until later this month just how much of the windfall was coming its way.
"Our expectations must be very realistic. Some of this money has been earmarked by the Government to be spent on specific services.
"We will know by 19th December what our specific allocations are" he said.
In the previous two years to last, the WHSSB balance sheet showed a deficit of around £1m.
Last year the Board had a surplus of around £2.5m. But of that, £2m of waiting list money wasn't spent because the Board could not put schemes in place.
"At the beginning of this financial year, we had about £6m in assets, but about £4m of that has been earmarked for clinical negligence claims" he added.
One off lump sums from Government funding, although welcome, were not what was actually needed, but the promise of "recurring money" in order that finance plans could be operated more smoothly, added Mr Lindsay.