Health Minister has announced a series of
initiatives to protect key health and social care services during
another highly challenging winter period.
The measures are detailed in a 2024/25 Winter Preparedness Plan
published today.
They will not eliminate winter pressures on the HSC system but
will help to alleviate their impact.
The Health Minister said: “There is no doubt that the Health and
Social Care system is again facing a very difficult winter
period. While there are ongoing pressures across the system all
year, it is clear that more people become sicker, for longer,
over the winter months. This is particularly true of our
older population.
“The planning process for winter gets underway in springtime, to
ensure that we can mitigate, as far as possible, the additional
pressures that we know we will face. For this winter, this
includes measures to keep the population well in the community,
including the use of community pharmacy, and measures to protect
primary care, hospital care and social care.
“We can all play our part again this winter to look after
ourselves and support the health service. This can include
getting vaccinated if you are eligible, taking sensible steps to
stay well, and co-operating with hospital discharge processes if
you or a family member are well enough to leave hospital.
“Timely hospital discharges are essential to ensure patient flow
through hospitals, freeing up capacity in Emergency Departments
and the Ambulance Service.”
The initiatives across primary, secondary and social care
detailed in the Winter Preparedness Plan include:
- A Pharmacy First Sore Throat Service available from
pharmacies across NI. Starting from December 1 for everyone aged
five and over, this service will offer advice, clinical
assessment and treatment for sore throats, without having to wait
for a GP appointment. This service was available from 43
pharmacies on a pilot basis last winter, and was effective in to
helping to free up GP time and relieve pressures on other urgent
care services.
- Vaccination programmes for COVID-19 and influenza are
operational again this year. In addition, a Respiratory Syncytial
Virus (RSV) vaccine is now available for older adults and
pregnant women from 28 weeks gestation. If all those people
who are eligible take up the vaccine opportunities open to them,
it will not only help keep these individuals safe, it will also
help to reduce pressures on services.
- An extra £3.4million is being made available to help GP
services meet additional winter demand. A further £4.6m has also
been provided to assist the delivery of proactive support and
care to those in nursing and residential care homes.
- Phone First services are available in all geographic Trusts
for urgent and unscheduled care. This can support timely
management of less serious cases away from busy Emergency
Departments and facilitate booking appointments into urgent care
services.
- An additional investment of £5million has been allocated to
the Health Trusts for 2024/2025 to enhance independent sector
provision of care packages for the over-65 population.
- To make best use of available home care capacity, Trusts have
also been provided with £697,000 in recurrent funding to
establish early review teams. This can release much-needed
capacity by identifying if needs have reduced in the period since
returning home.
The Health Minister concluded with a direct appeal to the public:
“Please do everything in your power to support our great health
and social care staff this winter.
“Please be patient and respectful as they deal with the upsurge
in demand for care and strive to treat the sickest quickest.”
Notes to editors:
1. The 2024/25 Winter Preparedness Plan can be read
here: www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/department-health-winter-preparedness-plan-2024-25
2. HSC Trusts are publishing localised winter plan summaries on
their websites.
