With nothing now standing between Sir Keir Starmer and political hegemony, health leaders in Northern Ireland are calling for collective support from Stormont and Westminster to help bring around critically needed changes to the country’s NHS and social care sector.
The rallying call is coming from the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) — a part of the NHS Confederation.
According to the NHS Confederation, the increasing strain in the devolved nation leaves its health and social care system in jeopardy. Although last month’s monitoring allocations were welcome, “prolonged political wrangling” will only cause further damage.
With this in mind, the NICON’s membership has two key asks:
- A creative approach to finding bridging funding to enable the delivery of three-year recovery plans
- An agreement from political leaders to collectively drive forward the suite of transformation initiatives at pace, including service reconfiguration
The NHS Confederation highlights that political consensus has been previously reached with Bengoa Expert Panel, ultimately leading to the publication of Systems, Not Structures — Changing Health and Social Care.
“Political leadership at every level is key at this time - as is visionary leadership from senior leaders and partners,” said the organisation’s CEO, Matthew Taylor.
“There is clear consensus on the way forward. After years of talking and stop start government, there must now be a serious focus on taking action.”
Professor Mark Taylor, who has been working across the NICON membership for the last three months, added: “We have a collective responsibility as leaders to highlight these concerns and potential solutions on behalf of our highly trained and dedicated workforce.”
Prof Taylor, who is also a consultant hepatobiliary surgeon at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, continued: “We stand ready to engage with politicians and the public in the coming weeks as we work together to do all in our power to support the health and wellbeing of people in Northern Ireland. We can do better, so we should — anything else is unconscionable.”
The news comes just after Northern Ireland’s Department of Health supported a collaboration between the University of Oxford and the country’s Health and Social Care Research and Development Division in a bid to drive up outcomes, reduce disparities, and sharpen research.
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