National insurance hike will add £140m to health service pressures – Nesbitt

An increase in employers’ national insurance contributions has added £140 million to financial pressures in Northern Ireland’s health service, Mike Nesbitt has said.

The Health Minister said the Department of Health would “take a financial hit” rather than leave healthcare providers to deal with the increased costs alone.

The health service in Northern Ireland is already dealing with a significant budget crisis.

Mr Nesbitt said the new pressures from the UK Government’s hike in National Insurance contributions would include approximately £100 million in relation to directly employed staff in trusts and other statutory organisations.

The minister said he has also agreed that funding be made available to help support non-statutory providers of health and social care in meeting their additional national insurance bills.

This package involves a projected £40 million and includes social care providers and hospices as well as family health service providers such as GPs, dentists, community pharmacies and opticians.

Mr Nesbitt said £3.5 million has been earmarked for GPs for national insurance and detailed in the 2025/26 GP contract discussions.

However, he said the British Medical Association (BMA) has asked its GP members to reject the GP contract on offer.

Of the other family health service providers, £4 million has been earmarked for community pharmacies, £2.5 million for general dental services and £1 million for general ophthalmic services.

Mr Nesbitt said: “My three-year plan for health and social care includes stabilisation of services amid the current severe financial pressures.

“Providing assistance with rising national insurance bills very much fits in with the stabilisation objective.

“It is crucially important to support providers who have been hit with additional costs for reasons entirely outside their control.

“I have therefore decided to take a financial hit rather than leave health care providers to deal with the UK Government’s hike in national insurance contributions by themselves.

“That would have been deeply unfair and would have been detrimental to health and social care provision.”