“Work together to help protect vital services”: Nesbitt

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has today launched the Department's 2025/26 Overarching Winter Preparedness Plan, setting out key measures to protect health and social care services during another challenging winter period.

The plan Overarching Winter Preparedness Plan 2025/26 | Department of Health provides direction and identifies measures that the Department of Health, Trusts and other key partners are taking to alleviate winter pressures in the Health and Social Care (HSC) system, taking a whole systems approach and ensuring the best use of resources.

The plan focuses on five key themes: prevention, the role of pharmacy and General Practice, hospital care, local planning and preparations and whole system flow improvement for the elderly and frail emerging from our “Big Discussion” workshops.

Delivery of actions to alleviate pressures, which are all year round but magnified over the winter period, relies on our dedicated staff across the HSC whose work and preparations have been ongoing since Spring. Trusts have a critical role to play and have developed local winter plans which will deliver both regional priorities and address specific local challenges, reflecting the outworkings of ongoing multi-disciplinary thinking and consideration.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said: “While the HSC system is under 365 day pressure, it is undoubtedly magnified in the winter months. To help mitigate this, and deliver the best possible care to those who need it, we again are asking the HSC system and the public to work together to help protect vital services.

 “Learning from the challenges last winter, I brought key HSC leaders together at a series of workshops, the ‘Big Discussion', to plan for this winter, allowing for a whole systems approach to improve patient and staff experiences. This provided us with a single vision based on the provision of high quality, safe care.”

 The workshops included all aspects of the HSC system working together to improve patient flow by better understanding the drivers for increased demand on Health and Social Care. The workshops aimed to reduce reliance on hospital care, support the delivery of person-centred care, and identify and support frailty in older people to avoid hospital admissions.

This year's plan also details the extensive vaccination programme, which aims to minimise the impact from winter infections such as influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and COVID-19.

The Overarching Winter Preparedness Plan includes a series of measures across primary, secondary and social care. These include:

• Tackling ambulance handover delays through a new approach to collaborative working between Trusts and the Ambulance Service, to reduce maximum handover delays from four hours to one hour;
• Vaccination programmes against diseases such as influenza, COVID-19, RSV, and shingles.  These are crucial to help protect our population and reduce pressure across the system. The Department has taken steps to allow for the COVID-19 booster and influenza vaccination to be largely administered together in one visit, making it as simple as possible.
• Community Pharmacy initiatives, such as the ‘Living Well Campaign' and ‘Stay Well This Winter', which encourage and support people to take actions to stay well over winter. The ‘Pharmacy First' service will be provided across Community Pharmacies, including the ‘Sore Throat Service', which offers advice, clinical assessment and treatment for sore throats, without having to wait for a GP appointment.
• Additional assistance for General Practitioner (GP) practices, providing 10,000 medical care plans for patients in nursing and residential care homes and over 98,000 additional sessions to help manage winter pressures. This will be delivered by providing support to increase capacity to meet demand across General Medical Services (GMS) and Out of Hours; and additional support to deliver proactive support to those in nursing and residential homes.
• Specific paediatric measures, which aim to clarify demand and capacity in a whole system approach via communication on a daily basis. The measures will also see patients repatriated from Belfast to other areas, and secure additional twilight hours into NISTAR (Northern Ireland Specialist Transport and Retrieval) to ensure fair and equitable access for neonatal paediatric patients.
• Improving mental health and learning disability bed pressures, reducing demand on Emergency Departments and ensuring the right care in the right place
• Supporting social care delivery in the community and improve system flow from hospital;
• Improving the whole system approach to managing and meeting the care needs of the elderly and those living with frailty;
• Avoiding ED attendance and admission for end-of-life care for those whose preference is to be at home.

Minister Nesbitt added: “We must be clear that while the steps taken will go some way to mitigating the anticipated pressures, they cannot be eradicated altogether.  Our Health and Social Care system is already under significant pressure before winter sets in, not least because of the very challenging financial situation. In order to successfully navigate the upcoming winter period, it remains vitally important that we all play our part, to make sure that HSC services are ready and available for those who need them most.  

 “We must all work together to protect our health service.  You can do this by getting vaccinated if eligible, taking steps to stay well and co-operating with hospital discharge processes if you or a family member are well enough to leave hospital.

 “I would also encourage service users to attend scheduled appointments or provide timely notice when this is no longer possible, to allow for appointments to be reallocated.

 “Please be patient and respectful with our staff as they deal with the increased demand and strive to treat the sickest quickest.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Winter Preparedness Plan is here: Overarching Winter Preparedness Plan 2025/26 | Department of Health