Simon Hamilton must resume health minister position, Janice Smyth says

The director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has called for Simon Hamilton to resume his position as health minister as soon as possible.

Mr Hamilton resigned along with several other DUP ministers as a result of the political crisis at Stormont.

On Thursday, a leading UK health expert said heads would roll in England if the waiting list crisis was on the same scale as in Northern Ireland.

The RCN's Janice Smyth said the current situation was unsustainable.

"Obviously the minister doesn't nurse patients and provide the medical care to patients but he does provide the leadership and the accountability and whilst he's not there, we don't have that," she told the BBC's The View.

"The decisions we're looking for are Transforming your Care. What are we going to do after the Donaldson review, what are we going to do about the review of commissioning that was done?

"All of these things that have been done and nothing implemented and nothing done about them and it is not sustainable."

The BBC revealed in July that some patients were waiting up to 18 months for hospital appointments.

Janice Smyth said the situation was unsustainable

Also speaking on The View, Mr Hamilton said he wanted to be back in office to address the problems in the health service.

He has faced criticism since resigning from his post last month as part of the DUP's "no business as usual" policy.

"I know the gravity of the situation that is there and I know there are huge challenges," he said.

'Political football'

"I know some of the decisions are not necessarily popular decisions, but I think it will be my responsibility to bring those forward and to set those choices in front of people but it does require political consensus.

"This is an issue which has unfortunately been kicked around by some as a political football."

SDLP health spokesman Fearghal McKinney accused Mr Hamilton of "abdicating his responsibility".

"There is no principle attached to this," he said.

"I understand he's got difficulties about recent murders, but his own colleague Arlene Foster is in government, but she's looking after the pounds, but Simon is not looking after the patients."

Nigel Edwards said "action would be taken" if Northern Ireland's waiting list figures were seen in hospitals in England

Mr McKinney said a "series of DUP ministers" had had an opportunity to make changes in the health service but had "singularly failed" to do so.

Mr Hamilton refused to confirm whether he would be back in his post permanently before the publication of a security assessment on paramilitaries in mid-October.

It will be carried out by a panel which was set up by the government to help address the crisis at Stormont.

It was triggered following a police assessment that IRA members were involved in the murder of a former IRA man in Belfast in August.