THE health service in Northern Ireland will require extra funding of £661 million next year on top of its annual £6 billion budget, the minister has said.
Creating pay parity for nurses and NHS staff are among commitments Robin Swann has made as part of the deal to restore powersharing following unprecedented strike action.
The New Decade, New Approach agreement also states that no-one waiting more than a year last September for outpatient or inpatient assessment/treatment will still be on a waiting list by March 2021.
The health minister said this commitment alone will cost around £50 million.
Mr Swann said: "There are, however, deep-seated problems across the health and social care system that will take years to put right.
"This will require major investment on a sustained basis - along with transformation reforms."
He said an extra £492 million would be required compared with this year's budget to maintain existing service levels.
Meeting commitments on restoring pay parity and improving staffing levels will require another £170 million.
Mr Swann added: "The 2020/21 budget which health receives next month will be crucial.
"My department requires a £492 million increase on this year's budget just to meet the inescapable costs of maintaining existing service levels with no growth in Transformation, and meet the Agenda for Change pay award and safe staffing costs."
He said: "In terms of waiting lists, it would allow a focus on red flag and urgent cases such as suspected cancer but overall the current totally unacceptable waiting list position would be unlikely to improve."
Mr Swann accepted he was requesting a significant amount of additional money.
"I very much welcome the priority attached to health by Executive colleagues both in public and in private. We are all facing up to the scale of the challenges in our departments.
"I certainly owe it to patients and their families to be frank with them.
"My ability to start reducing waiting times and improve other struggling services will be heavily dependent on the budget allocation received by my department next month."