Free parking for healthcare staff at Altnagelvin Hospital extended until July 31
And it acknowledges that we will continue to have to live with Coronavirus for some time yet.
The Western Health and Social Care Trust Rebuild Plan April – June 2021 has been published as the Health Minister Robin Swann detailed his ambitions for the re-building of the north’s health service, while stressing the need for sustained investment to deliver the plans.
Speaking in the Assembly today Mr Swann said the pandemic has had a “significant impact on our already appalling waiting lists”.
It had also “highlighted serious long established fragilities in our health and social care system, especially in terms of staffing capacity”.
The Department of Health (DoH) estimated that it could take five to 10 years to tackle current lists, which are increasing daily.
Mr Swann said the present funding model is not “fit for purpose” and instead called for a multi-year budget approach.
“Who does not have a loved one, a friend or a relative who at some point either now or in the future will need to access an elective procedure. We as a house owe it to all our citizens to tackle the elective waiting lists,” he said.
The DoH said to address the “burning issue” of waiting lists, a number of consultations will be published in due course including a cancer recovery plan and an elective care framework.
The statement also addressed the need for more staff which Mr Swann said is problematic to plan for when there is not the recurrent allocation of funds.
There were calls across the assembly for party politics to be set aside in tackling the reform of the health service.
MLAs were told that rebuilding services was about getting patients a pathway to treatment as “quickly as possible” as opposed to as “closely as possible”.
The five regional Trusts and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service all published their latest rebuild plans to help address these problems.
Mr Swann said the Trust rebuilding plans include elective (planned) care being prioritised regionally.
Mr Swann told MLAs elective surgery will be prioritised in line with greatest clinical need, and will not be dependent on a patient’s postcode.
The Western Trust plan acknowledges the onerous burden the coronavirus surges have placed on staff.
“We are cognisant of the significant demands that have been placed on staff both physically and emotionally and we remain committed to working in partnership with staff and Trades Unions to support our staff recovery from the pandemic.
“The Trust is committed to taking a carefully considered and balanced approach to rebuilding services taking into account lessons learned over the past year whilst also acknowledging that we will continue to live with COVID-19 for some time and this will continue to impact on how we can deliver our services, including social distancing and infection prevention control measures,” it stated.
“We are committed to delivering safe and effective care for all our clients and patients but initially our focus will be on treating the most urgent cases first. As a result, some patients may continue to wait longer than we would like,” it declared.
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