AQW 48783/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 16/06/2026
Answered On Date: 01/07/2026
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health whether his Department has completed a resourcing assessment of paediatric rheumatology against demand on services, in the last two years.

Answer:

The regional paediatric rheumatology service has a funded consultant establishment of 2.5 whole time equivalent (WTE) posts, of which 2.0 WTE consultants are currently in post. The service is supported by a multidisciplinary team comprising 0.8 WTE pharmacy, 0.6 WTE physiotherapy, 0.6 WTE occupational therapy and 1.0 WTE podiatry staff, together with administrative support. Some multidisciplinary team staff work across both adult and paediatric rheumatology services.

My officials have been working directly with the paediatric rheumatology team over the last nine months focusing on improving the sustainability of the service, broader use of the multidisciplinary team in the service delivery model and support for transition to adult care.

In parallel work is ongoing to refine activity, waiting time and transition age information to better understand the staffing needs of the service and the options available to secure sustainability improvements. My officials have noted the commitment of the paediatric rheumatology team to engage with colleagues in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children (RBHSC), across Northern Ireland, and beyond, to explore additional support and innovations in service delivery to strengthen resilience. The Public Health Agency (PHA) is also supporting this work on the needs assessment side to further inform future planning and service configuration opportunities.

With regards to staffing, the safe and sustainable delivery of specialist paediatric services in Northern Ireland is challenging. The population size of 1.9 million restricts the number of consultants in practice as this is determined by the volume of activity each doctor needs to maintain clinical skills and professional accreditation.

Comparability of consultant staffing between different paediatric specialties varies in relation to case mix, complexity and rarity of conditions and is not a valid comparator. It may, however, be helpful to note that paediatric rheumatology is one of a number of smaller specialist paediatric services being delivered in Belfast Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust with similar consultant staffing levels. These include metabolic medicine (2.0 WTE), endocrinology (2.0 WTE), neurodisability (2.0 WTE), and gastroenterology (3.0 WTE).

Mapping exercises with wider UK are difficult to validate as comparators due to the range of service models in operation and the scale of populations served. This is probably best demonstrated by findings as set out in the 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme National Paediatric Rheumatology Speciality Report which confirms these variations across paediatric rheumatology centres and populations served in England.

My Department recognises the need for investment in the delivery and management of biological therapies for children. In this regard a recurrent allocation of £100,000 has been made available to the Belfast HSC Trust in support of biologics. The business case detailing the proposed profiling of these funds and the additional staffing to be secured is expected shortly. My commitment to building this infrastructure recognises the importance of building resource and resilience in specialist paediatrics ensuring that children, young people and their families continue to have access to the most up to date specialist treatments and therapies, as a key component of clinical care and service delivery.