Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Protecting and promoting the welfare of children is now to be overseen by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland. agendaNi reports.
A Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland is to be established in April 2012 after the Safeguarding Board Bill was taken forward by former Health Minister Michael McGimpsey and received royal assent on 10 February 2011.
While voluntary and statutory organisations currently work together to safeguard children (for example on the Regional Child Protection Committee), this is now a statutory requirement. The Safeguarding Board will replace the committee....
[full story]
Tags: Care services
Posted in Education, Health, Reform, Social | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Parliament will debate Nigel Dodds’ Bill to tackle the abuse of older people in the new year. Stephen Dineen reports.
Nigel Dodds’ private members’ Bill aimed at highlighting and preventing abuse of older people and vulnerable adults will have its second reading in the House of Commons on 20 January. The Support and Protection for Elderly People and Adults at Risk of Abuse Bill, which enjoyed cross-party support at first reading, seeks to ensure training on how to recognise and respond to such abuse, promote local strategies for preventing abuse and provide assistance to victims.
At...
[full story]
Tags: Care services
Posted in Health, Reform, Social, Westminster | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a professional organisation and a trade union.
It is not a member of TUC or ICTU and is not affiliated to any political party.
At the end of 2010 its membership stood at 409,801, including 13,418 members in Northern Ireland. Members include registered nurses, student nurses and healthcare assistants.
The union covers four regions: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the English regions. The six RCN branches across Northern Ireland hold regular meetings and organise events to promote nursing and the RCN at a local level.
Its governance structure...
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Tags: Trade union profile
Posted in Health, Voluntary | Comments Off
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Homecare Independent Living’s Managing Director Mairead Mackle discusses its work and the challenges facing the Health Service in Northern Ireland with Peter Cheney and calls for a closer working relationship between the statutory and independent sectors in order to best deliver community care.
“We have firm views on how Homecare’s services can positively impact on our local communities,” according to Mairead Mackle who founded Homecare Independent Living along with her husband Gerald in 1995. Gerald is Executive Director and heads up the company’s housing division.
Mairead...
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Tags: Cover story
Posted in Business, Health, Social, Top Story | Comments Off
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Radical changes to health and social care are expected from the Compton review. Peter Cheney reports.
The way ahead for health and social care in Northern Ireland will be marked out over the next two months as a comprehensive review of the system approaches its deadline. The review was announced by Health Minister Edwin Poots in June and is due to report back to him by 30 November.
Poots selected John Compton, the Health and Social Care Board’s Chief Executive, as its chair due to his extensive experience but he is assisted by five independent advisors (see box).
The BMA questions...
[full story]
Tags: Health
Posted in Finance, Health, Reform | Comments Off
Monday, October 10th, 2011
In a new series, agendaNi asks two sides of a policy debate to put forward their case. Our first subject, minimum alcohol pricing, is currently on the desks of the Social Development Minister and Health Minister.
For
Judith Cochrane Social Development Spokeswoman Alliance Party
The Alliance Party has a long record of supporting the introduction of minimum pricing for alcohol, with Health Spokesperson Kieran McCarthy MLA first calling for greater research on the issue in 2010. Since then the party has continued to call for the introduction of legislation to address the issue and included...
[full story]
Tags: For and against
Posted in Business, Economy, Finance, Health, Social | Comments Off
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Three years after ISNI2 was published, agendaNi examines the key infrastructure projects likely to be taken forward by the current Executive.
An updated Infrastructure Strategy for Northern Ireland (ISNI3) has been drafted and approved by ministerial special advisers. However, until the Programme for Government is released it is unclear which infrastructure projects will get the green light.
ISNI2 was released in 2008 and outlined infrastructure spending from 2008 to 2018. ISNI3 is required because of the economic downturn and budget cuts and will cover infrastructure spending over the...
[full story]
Tags: Infrastructure
Posted in Education, Health, Infrastructure, Justice, Transport | Comments Off
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Microsoft’s General Manager of Worldwide Health, Neil Jordan, discusses the broad picture of the sector with Owen McQuade and how information technology can help improve patient outcomes in Northern Ireland.
Neil Jordan has had an “incredibly exciting” journey while developing Microsoft’s health ICT work, and has seen first hand its real potential to transform services once the the technology is comprehensively rolled out.
Jordan is Microsoft’s General Manager of Worldwide Health and is speaking to agendaNi from Seattle as a radical phase of health reform gathers pace in Northern...
[full story]
Tags: Cover story
Posted in Economy, Health, ICT, Reform, Technology, Top Story | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
A radical reform programme is needed to avoid damaging cuts, the hard- hitting McKinsey report states. agendaNi reviews its proposals.
Northern Ireland’s Health Service will run out of money in four years unless fundamental reforms take place. That is the main message from the McKinsey report, commissioned by the Health and Social Care Board.
Four trends, it found, are adding to the pressure on the system:
1. A growing and ageing population (50,000 more people by 2014, 17 per cent aged over 65);
2. Social and behavioural problems (less care within families, increasing drug and alcohol...
[full story]
Tags: Health
Posted in Assembly, Finance, Health, Politics | Comments Off
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Health Minister Edwin Poots shares his vision for the service with Owen McQuade: more primary care, listening to front-line staff and separating emergency and elective services. The new Minister expects to make difficult decisions but believes better results are achievable.
“I want to see a Health Service that is responsive to the needs of the people that are using it,” Edwin Poots states. “I want to see a Health Service that is local and therefore I want to see an enhancement of primary care and the availability of more services at that primary care level. And I want to see a...
[full story]
Tags: Health
Posted in Assembly, Health, Homepage Stories, Politics, Reform | Comments Off
