Health minister Robin Swann has said that his successor will have "much work to do" in transforming the health service in Northern Ireland.
In his final appearance before his scrutiny committee in the current Assembly mandate, Mr Swann repeated his frustrations at Stormont's failure to pass a three-year budget, which would have given a significant funding boost to the health service.
Ministers are unable to sign off on a new budget due to the power-sharing impasse, meaning departments will have to fall back on emergency arrangements to continue funding public services.
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Mr Swann told the health committee that the two years of the pandemic had brought unprecedented challenges for the health service.
He said: "It was only fitting that we took the time yesterday to reflect on the challenges and losses of the last two years.
"While we are thankful we have been able to move beyond the blunt use of restrictions, it is important that we continue to guard against complacency regarding the virus.
"Despite all of the challenges of the pandemic we have been able to make progress on a whole range of issues.
"We are in a much stronger workforce position both in terms of numbers being trained and in morale as to where we were in January 2020. There is still obviously much more work to do."
The minister continued: "As we continue to deal with the realities of the pandemic and the pressures that already existed across the health service before it, I think we can all agree that we need a firm focus on recovery and improvement.
"I have no doubt that whoever sits in this chair in the months ahead will want to see the existing momentum continue.
"Whilst we are constantly planning for the future, the pace, scale and direction of rebuilding and transformation of the health service will also be influenced by the resources that are available to it.
"We had a real opportunity with the three-year draft budget and while that has been admittedly lost now, it just makes it all the more important that the next Executive agrees a sustainable multi-year budget position.
"Whilst there has been progress made, there is still much work for the next minister and the next committee to do."
UUP MLA Alan Chambers said much progress has been made during the two years of the current Assembly.
He added: "How has dealing with the Covid pandemic curtailed the work of your department in delivering the changes you have been seeking to achieve and just how damaging and frustrating is the absence of a multi-year budget?"
Mr Swann responded: "An awful lot of work has been done. Would I have liked to have been able to do more? Could we have done more without the pandemic?
"I do believe so because I think our elective care strategy, our mental health strategy, our cancer strategy all laid out where we want to see the health service in Northern Ireland taken.
"The biggest frustration is the fact that one of the things I have ensured is that a costed funding proposal sits alongside each of those strategies, so that people would see not just a strategy but also what they will be getting for their money.
"We are back now for what is potentially a one-year budget and that does not allow the department of health, the trusts, to look long term, even three years into the future, so that they can get a lot of those strategies moved from being pilots to being embedded so we can start delivering them."
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