Posts tagged ‘Health’
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...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Finance, Health, Reform | 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...
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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...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Assembly, Health, Homepage Stories, Politics, Reform | Comments Off
Friday, March 11th, 2011
A bill of £700 million could have been racked up in treating the growing number of people in the province addicted to drugs and alcohol last year, according to an addiction charity. Emma Blee writes.
“Alcohol is still the big problem in Northern Ireland, drugs sometimes get more attention but alcohol is the main problem,” states Addiction NI’s director Claire Armstrong.
A DHSSPS census of drug and alcohol treatment services showed that on 1 March 2010, 5,846 people were in treatment for addiction, a 15 per cent increase from March 2005.
Some 57 per cent of these people were...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Economy, Health, Social, Voluntary | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Jim Wells, who chairs the Assembly’s Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee, sets out its priorities and concerns as the budget approaches.
In the current climate of belt-tightening and competing claims on the Northern Ireland budget, we are all striving to ensure that we deliver the services we need and obtain value for money.
My committee plays an important part in ensuring that the Health Minister and his department provide the services required and introduce efficiencies by holding him to account and vigorously reviewing his policies and priorities.
The Department...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Assembly, Finance, Health, Politics | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
The Health Service must end “almost an obsession” with buildings as most care can take place outside hospitals, the RCN’s Garrett Martin tells Peter Cheney. Health is everyone’s responsibility and all government departments must play their part.
Northern Ireland’s health system is far too focused on what happens in hospital buildings when community services can meet most needs, according to Garrett Martin. The Royal College of Nursing’s Deputy Director in Northern Ireland was speaking to agendaNi about the need to get the right care for the population as demand increases.
“We...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Health, Infrastructure, Social | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Health affects everyone in society and has been a major political topic since devolution returned. agendaNi summarises the main parties’ commitments from their Assembly, European and Westminster manifestos. Health is devolved except for some sensitive ethical matters e.g. genetics.
UUP Minister: Michael McGimpsey MLA Spokesman: John McCallister MLA
The UUP claims credit for bringing the NHS to Northern Ireland in 1948 and took on the portfolio in May 2007. Its Assembly manifesto pledged a move towards free comprehensive eye examinations, free prescriptions, and an extension...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Assembly, Health, Politics, Reform | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Research shows that children in long-term residential care need a smoother transition into adulthood. Meadhbh Monahan reports.
“High need” young people from Northern Ireland who have been in residential care most of their lives often lack basic skills such as boiling a kettle.
Despite the fact that from the moment a child enters a residential care home, the focus is on preparing them for independent living, many who have experienced traumatic upbringings still resort to crime and drug abuse. Consequently, staff are on 24-hour call to deal with incidents such as self-harm and mental...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Education, Health, Social | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Allowing clinicians to invest surpluses and strong political leadership can help the Health Service cope with austerity, Gordon Marnoch writes.
Northern Ireland faces extremely challenging times in meeting its commitments to maintain standards of service in health and social care. As the Assembly budget process moves forward, it is worth considering the English and Scottish predicaments.
In Scotland the SNP Government is committed to ring-fencing health spending. The block grant to Scotland will fall by £1.8 billion next year, which means local government spending will need to fall...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Economy, Finance, Health, Social | No Comments »
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Ring-fencing would only reward a failing culture in the health sector, Joanne Murphy contends.
Health is bad for you. Spending time exploring the complex realities of health service delivery is enough to give anyone a headache. We all depend to a greater or lesser degree on the Health Service and require it to deliver a service which meets our endlessly increasing requirements in a time diminishing resources. But even in this situation the last thing the Northern Ireland Executive should do is ring-fence the health budget and here is why.
For over a decade our Health Service has been...
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Tags: Health
Posted in Finance, Health, Social | No Comments »
