Reforms signalled for NI health service

The “intolerable misery” of lengthy waiting lists in Northern Irish hospitals has to be brought to an end, health minister Shaun Woodward said today.

Patients being told they would have to wait over four years for orthopaedic surgery was “completely unacceptable”, he said.

Such lengthy waiting times were not exceptions to the rule, he told a conference of health service chief executives in Belfast

“It has to change. It must change and with you help I intend to change it,” Mr Woodward said.

He said that next Monday he would set out the first stage of his reform plans. “We have to bring this intolerable misery to an end.”

In a wide-ranging address he signalled major reforms especially to the way the North’s health service – which receives 11% more per head of population than in England – should change.

He questioned the huge bureaucracy which ran a health service for 1.7 million people in six counties – it’s own department of health, four health boards and 19 trusts.

“This is a big bureaucracy and it costs a lot of money. Does such a huge bureaucracy actually deliver better healthcare?” he asked.

He pointed to an area of England with a similar population: Kent and Medway. Instead of 19 trusts it has just four.

Mr Woodward said that in the North: “I worry that the separation of health services, of hospitals, of services between the trusts isn’t just wasting money but actually prevents a more joined-up system, a system which delivers services faster. A system which would reduce waiting lists”.

Spelling out his vision for healthcare for the coming years he said the quality of the service provided at present was patchy.

“A fundamental principle of the NHS is universality of the service and we know that isn’t happening at the moment here in Northern Ireland.”

He said the service was first class in places, but it just wasn’t universal enough.

“It is patchy and there can be huge variations between one trust and another. Between one hospital and another. Between one waiting list and another. Even between specialism.

“Our task is to ensure that we are able to bring a first class health system to all patients across Northern Ireland.

“The public should have a system which ensures that when patients go into hospital, they can expect their health care to be provided with a sense of urgency, efficiency, and with the highest standard of professional care and, of course, safety.”