REVEALED: How the £100m shot in the arm for health services in Northern Ireland will be spent
Planned package of investments includes £15m for GP services
Last updated 9th May 2018
Family doctor services across Northern Ireland are set to benefit from the £100m Health and Social Care Transformation Fund.
The Department of Health has confirmed that £15m will be pumped into GP practices across the province - in a bid to tackle rising hospital waiting lists.
The planned package of investments for 2018/19 includes £15million for enhancing primary care which is largely provided from GP practices.
This will include some £5m for the roll-out of Multi Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) at doctors' surgeries.
These involve the establishment of practice-based physiotherapists, mental health specialists and social workers - working alongside doctors and nurses to better meet the needs of the local population.
The roll-out of MDTs this year will cover two areas initially, each serving in the region of 100,000 people.
Developing Multi Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) at GP clinics represents health and social care transformation in action, helping provide more care closer to people’s homes. This will have the added benefit of easing demand pressures on hospitals.
It is hoped that success across the MDT pilot areas will lead to the initiative being extended to GP practices across the province in the years ahead.
Further projected investments under the £100million transformation funding also include:
• £15million for workforce development in the Health and Social Care sector. This funding will support a key transformation goal of developing new and innovative ways of working together across health and social care.
• Up to £30 million for reforming community and hospital services, including mental health and pharmacy. This funding will help implement new strategies for key services including: cancer services; stroke services; paediatric services; medicines optimisation; and diabetes care and prevention. It will also support the reconfiguration agenda, by investing in plans for Elective Care Centres - stand-alone day surgery units that will make a major contribution to tackling hospital waiting times.
• £5 million will be invested in a range of interventions which will enable transformation. This will include a range of targeted actions aimed at strengthening the voice of those who use and those who deliver HSC services, so that they play a key role in developing and implementing new ways of working. Further areas of investment will build capacity for quality improvement across the system, as well as investment in technology and supporting innovation.
• £5 million on building capacity in communities and prevention, including significant investment in children’s social services to fund a new approach to working with parents and families and to provide a different offer to children in care to better meet their needs.
It was recently announced that £30million of the £100million funding for 2018/19 will be targeted at reducing hospital waiting times. This is in line with the Bengoa and Delivering Together reports on transformation, which cited the need to address waiting times as a stabilisation measure.
This funding will allow up to a further 24,000 outpatient assessments and approximately 7,400 treatments to be carried out; along with 19,000 diagnostics to reduce the number of people presently waiting longer than 26 weeks.
In addition, an estimated 24,000 Allied Health Professional assessments can be provided to reduce the current backlog of patients waiting longer than 13 weeks, mainly for physiotherapy and occupational therapy.
Trusts have been tasked with deploying the funding to assess and treat as many clinically urgent patients as possible, and prioritise patients waiting the longest times.
Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI said:
“Community Pharmacy NI, the representative body of local pharmacists in Northern Ireland welcome the releasing of details under the £100 million Health and Social Care Transformation Fund by the Department of Health.
“Several reports in recent years including Bengoa and Transforming Your Care have highlighted the need to shift services from hospitals out into communities. At the moment, community pharmacists provides unrivalled access and are often the first port of call for patients accessing the health service. 123,000 people visit a pharmacist in their local community every day. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that central to any transformative programme is the adequate funding and future investment of the community pharmacy network. Access is immediate and unlike GP surgeries, is not appointment led.
“On the back of this announcement we would urge the Department to meet with us to look at how adequate funding of the community pharmacy network can help ensure that the Transformation Fund does not drive more and more people to GP surgeries that are already heavily congested.
“Scotland and Wales provide us with excellent examples of what transformation of the health service looks like and the impact it can have on improving patient outcomes, shifting demand and delivering efficiencies.
“Our flagship role at the heart of public health and our vital place-based network of community pharmacies can play a significant role in making the transformation programme a success.
“Prior to the collapse of the Assembly and Executive, the former Health Minister Michelle O’Neill highlighted the significant role community pharmacy plays in supporting better health outcomes from medicines and preventing illness. Without a Minister in place we would urge the Department to fulfil its commitment to the community pharmacy network."