A new three-year strategic plan for health and social care has
today been published by Health Minister .
The plan involves a wide range of initiatives based on three
central themes - Stabilisation, Reform and Delivery.
The Health Minister said: “Since taking office, I have
underlined the need to build hope for all those who deliver, use
and rely on health and social care services.
“I believe this three-year plan will make a significant
contribution by indicating my direction of travel to secure
better outcomes for staff, patients, service users and the
population at large.
“I am acutely aware of the intense pressures on staff and
the serious shortfalls in provision across the system.
Stabilisation was the only viable option for this year, given the
budget and other resource and workforce restraints.
“The purpose of this plan, however, is not about what we
cannot achieve - it is about improving the health and wellbeing
of our population and making our health and social care services
the best they can be. It is about hope and ambition.
“Of course, the pace of progress will be heavily
influenced by future budget settlements and successful
partnership working across the Executive. I believe that if we
all work together, we can meaningfully improve population health,
support people to live healthy lives and provide the conditions
for services to thrive.”
Details of the three-year strategic plan were provided in a
statement to the Assembly by the Minister today. He emphasised to
MLAs that his commitment to Stabilisation included securing a
“good deal” on staff pay for 2024/25.
The newly published document should be read alongside the
recently published framework ‘Hospitals – Creating a Network for
Better Outcomes' which sets out the basis for decisions on
reconfiguring hospital services. It also complements existing
strategies, frameworks and reviews spanning health and social
care provision including elective care, cancer care, mental
health, urgent and emergency care, adult social care and
community pharmacy.
The three-year plan sets out a series of initiatives for to
improve healthy living, primary care, hospital care, social care,
productivity and patient safety, while tackling health
inequalities. These include:
- Bringing forward a new Obesity Strategic Framework for
Northern Ireland;
- Implementing the NI provisions in the UK Government's Tobacco
and Vapes Bill;
- Bringing forward proposals for Minimum Unit Pricing for
alcohol;
- Embedding the new Live Better initiative on health
inequalities;
- Putting in place a new lung screening programme and an
expanded bowel screening programme;
- Challenging Health and Social Care Trusts to deliver 46,000
additional outpatient assessments and 11,000 additional
treatments annually by 2027;
- Publishing a plan by April 2025 for the completion of the
Multi-Disciplinary Team model for General Practice across all
areas of Northern Ireland;
- Implementing new models for delivery of home (domiciliary)
care services, learning disability services and children's social
care services, as well as a regionally consistent contract for
care home placements;
- Making the independent adult social care sector a Real Living
Wage sector;
- Reforming neurology and stroke services with proposals for
change to be the subject of public consultations;
- Reforming pathology services with the intention to establish
a single management structure for all pathology and blood
transfusion services;
- Strategic reviews on breast cancer and radiotherapy services,
informing how these services should be delivered in the future;
- Strategic initiatives on quality and safety. This will
include a consultation early in the New Year on our proposals to
make the Serious Adverse Incident process fit for purpose.
The Minister will also advance proposals for an organisational
duty of candour as well as considering proposals for an
individual duty of candour. This will take into consideration the
contents of the UK Government's proposed Hillsborough Bill, which
may have far-reaching implications in this area. However, the
Minister remains proactive and today has launched a public
consultation on a new Being Open Framework, with a key aim of
helping to empower organisations and staff to exercise candour
and openness.
Notes to editors:
- The three year plan is based on three pillars:
• Stabilisation of services, including mitigating the
deterioration of some services as a result of budgetary
pressures.
• Accelerated Reform to make the strategic changes
necessary to enable the system to address the health needs of
citizens. We must put the health system on a sustainable
footing with a long-term vision supported by a viable plan to
deliver it.
• Delivery of safe, sustainable, high-quality health and
social care services as close as possible to citizens through
community, primary, hospital and social care , with services
configured effectively and efficiently to meet demand for both
planned and unscheduled care. This also means delivering for
the workforce.
- The three-year plan can be read here: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/health-and-social-care-ni-three-year-plan
- The Minister's statement to the Assembly can be read here:
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/doh-ministerial-announcements-and-statements-2024
