Your article and the subsequent editorial on August 6 about the bill for agency nurses in the Health Service offers an opportunity for clarification.

As Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, I accept that our trusts occasionally need to employ agency staff.

These temporary employees provide valuable and often vital cover during annual leave, maternity and sick leave and help to keep services running.

In previous years the service has, perhaps, relied too much on agency staff and I am working with our trusts to reduce this, and this is reflected in their efficiency proposals for the next three years.

The Health Service needs to run more efficiently.

I am at the front of that efficiency drive.

The reduction of 19 trusts to six is one way of ensuring efficiency across the system.

Significant resources have also been freed up for investment in front-line services.

We regularly review our workforce to ensure that we have the appropriate numbers of doctors, nurses and other health professionals in training and available for the front-line. My priority is to deliver a world-class health and care service for the people of Northern Ireland.

This doesn’t come cheap.

The wage bill for health and social care staff alone is £1.7bn; a necessity to attract the best people to deliver the high standard of care that patients rightly expect and deserve. But it should be remembered that what we spend annually employing agency staff is under 1% of the overall health and social care wage bill.

The job of Health Minister is a difficult one with many challenges.

But those who face the real challenges are the dedicated health care workforce who day and daily deal with life and death issues.

Their job is a true vocation and I will endeavour to do all I can to support them in that role, and to ensure that people using health and social care services are looked after to the highest standards and with the best staff and treatment available.

Michael McGimpsey

Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety