BMA NI responds to health reform plans

  The health service in Northern Ireland needs to move towards a planning-based model and away from a purchaser-provider split. BMA Northern Ireland makes the recommendation in response to a recent consultation on health and social care reforms in the nation. The consultation from the Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, called Health and Social Care: Reform and Transformation — Getting the Structures Right, follows on from recommendations made by former chief medical officer for England Professor Sir Liam Donaldson last year. Sir Liam was critical of the current purchaser-provider split and the number of acute hospitals in Northern Ireland. The consultation was launched last December after Northern Ireland health minister Simon Hamilton outlined his intention to reform the administrative structures for health and social care.   Minister's plan The minister’s proposals included the removal of the Health and Social Care Board, which has responsibility for commissioning health and social care services. If implemented, this would bring to an end the commissioning model that has been in place since the 1980s. In response to the consultation, BMA NI has called for: Reduction in bureaucracy GP contracts to be held centrally and not by health and social care trusts Effective medical workforce planning as a matter of urgency to address the workforce crisis in general practice, and in some secondary care specialties Refor...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news