Site Logo
The case for reshaping Northern Ireland hospital services

Northern Ireland’s Department of Health has issued the first edition of a new newsletter detailing extensive work on the reconfiguration of key hospital services.

Proposals for stroke and breast assessment services have this year been the subject of public consultations.

The Department is now examining all the responses received and will shortly decide on the best way forward. 

In addition, clinically-led reviews are underway on urgent and emergency care, neurology services, breast treatment, pathology services, and bariatric surgery.

Permanent Secretary, Richard Pengelly, said: “Changing the way hospital care is provided is never easy.

“The services provided in hospitals are greatly valued by communities and the staff who provide them are justifiably proud of the work they do.

“However, medicine doesn’t, and shouldn’t, stand still.

“Models of care change constantly to reflect new constraints, new technologies, new ways of working, and new evidence of what works and what doesn’t.

“This is not about saving money – greater levels of demand will inevitably require more investment – but it is about ensuring that key services remain sustainable and safe in the long term.

“The most important thing is that people, irrespective of where they live or access these specialist services, should be able to receive the same high-quality treatment, under the right clinical team, in the right place.”

The newsletter sets out the factors behind the reconfiguration plans including increased demand for care with more people living longer; the need to ensure access to the same high-quality treatment across the province; and the importance of building sustainable staffing teams.

Pengelly added: “Some of our services continue to be extremely vulnerable due to the difficulties in attracting and retaining the highly-trained staff who are necessary to safely provide the services.

“There are national shortages of clinical staff in almost every profession and we need to be realistic about how this may impact on our services.

“The alternative to planned change is letting it happen in an unplanned way, with services becoming increasingly unsustainable.

“Services have collapsed suddenly in this way in the past and this kind of unplanned change inevitably has an impact on patients.”

The reconfiguration reviews will also identify whether current systems, procedures, IT and HR policies for managing the delivery of hospital-based services are fully fit for purpose and how these might to be transformed.

 

 

Related Stories
The challenges of mental health design
Designing modern furniture ranges for challenging environments like mental health facilities means ensuring products are comfortable and homely, but, most importantly, safe.
Stafford Bridge
Stafford Bridge has been for many years an established proven supplier and installer of high secure seclusion room door and window solutions. Due to the specialist nature of the requirements and the bespoke product offering we are able to cater for the varying needs and challenges our clients face when creating suitable living environments which also need to stand the test of time. At the centre of our Modular Healthcare solutions is our flagship CareCor hardwood door leaf technology which has been const...
Experience-based design
Jo Makosinski speaks to the team at Cygnet Health Care about their novel approach to mental health design, which is transforming the way we think about therapeutic environments
Mental health and dementia facilities forum goes Virtual 4th-5th November 2020
Stable Events are delighted to announce the mental health and dementia facilities virtual forum on 4-5 November. Due to government guidelines Stable Events have made the decision to host all their forums virtually for 2020.  We have invested and developed an exclusive unique online platform that is completely interactive and enables maximum engagement with private meeting rooms and conference areas which allow delegates to: listen to keynote speakers’ seminars join in panel discussion and Q & A session...
Designing for people
Here we review the first virtual mental health and dementia facilities forum which was held earlier this week

Login / Sign up