Health minister instructs trusts to pause cuts to Phone First service

At last month's health committee meeting, senior staff from the Belfast Trust were questioned about their decision to cut the line as winter approached.

"It's frustrating, it's not something that we wanted to do... but we felt that it was the least worst option," said Claire Corry, Director of Finance at the Belfast Trust.

Her boss, Chief Executive Jennifer Welsh, explained the projected £800m shortfall in Northern Ireland's health budget meant all trusts had been instructed to find savings that "could be delivered without causing harm to service users".

Welsh explained Phone First was scrapped in Belfast in order to prioritise other services that "we think would generate more benefit for patients and staff".