The end of free GP access in Northern Ireland is in sight

A couple of years back, I was chatting to a friend of a friend who is a GP. Like, I suspect, most of us, I had (and still have) a fairly limited understanding of the nuts and bolts of how healthcare is actually provided in Northern Ireland, and he spent a bit of time explaining it to me. I was quite surprised to discover, for example, that GP surgeries are actually private businesses. They’re almost exclusively organised as partnerships, a …

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Tackling isolation

Isolation and loneliness amongst older people are serious problems that worsened during the pandemic. While people are living longer, often this involves one partner surviving the other. Sometimes the result can be not only unhappiness, but also additional pressures on GPs and hospitals, as the person has nowhere else to turn. Loneliness has such far-reaching consequences that the health impact is comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to one study, and is associated with an increased …

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We are not moving forward. We are not moving back. We are simply standing in the middle of the road…

Colin McGrath is an SDLP MLA for South Down  The creation of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948 was the first time, anywhere in the world, that completely free healthcare was made available based on citizenship. It was and remains for many, a radical ideal. The Minister for Health in the UK’s Labour government at the time, Aneurin Bevan, aware that many people saw its inception as radical responded with typical post-war Labour zeal, “We know what happens …

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Omicron’s Real Threat to the NHS May Be Shutting Its Chinese Supply Line

If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that the world never pays enough attention to things that happen in inland China in December. The whole metropolitan region of the Chinese city of Xi’an, home to the terracotta warriors, has just been put under a hard lockdown, with residents to stay home except for one person from each household allowed out to buy groceries every two days. Thirteen million people confined at home because of a Delta outbreak …

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Slugger Podcast talks about the State of the State

Powered by RedCircle In this episode of the Slugger podcast we speak with Ed Roddis, Head of Public Sector Research and Marie Doyle, Director at Deloitte about the latest State of the State Report. We chatted about attitudes toward the health service, the protocol and confidence in the Executive. The State of the State Report for 2021 has been released by Deloitte. The report examines and attempts to put in context attitudes and opinions of the public, policy-makers and business …

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My personal experience of our ever increasing health waiting lists….

A few months from now I will be able to call myself an octogenarian! I am lucky to have reached this moniker in comparatively good health as I take only vitamin pills and, if I bend my knees, can still touch my toes. My experience of the National Health Service in N.I. had been, until a few years ago, extremely good. Before, during and after the Troubles the service here was remarkable and, along with our doctors and nurses, deservedly …

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Build it back, build it better – NICON Health and Social Care conference…

Last week I attended NICON 2020 usually held in La Mon hotel this conference was held virtually and although it is essentially an “industry” event, all stakeholders were welcome. Which included yours truly who as a service user was allocated a ticket through my involvement with The Patient Client Council The Department of Health website describes NICON as “a Health and Social Care platform which exists to influence policy, support and brief members, inform and influence the media and politicians …

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‘I’m talking about a culture change in government in Northern Ireland: I mean the civil service and politicians’

Evidence-based policy-making is largely absent from government in Northern Ireland, but the new Pivotal think-tank has been established to correct that, says its director Ann Watt. She was speaking in the last of the second series of Holywell Trust Forward Together podcasts.    The aim of Pivotal “is to help improve public policy in Northern Ireland,” says Ann. “It’s got a strong emphasis on research and evidence and on using evidence better in public policy.” The very first Pivotal report, published in November last year, …

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“Most people believe social care should be free, but there’s a lot of confusion out there”

Social care must be reformed. If it wasn’t clear before the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become tragically obvious over recent weeks. So this is an opportune time to hear in the latest Holywell Trust Forward Together podcast from Deirdre Heenan, professor of social policy at Ulster University and joint author nine years ago of a major study into Northern Ireland’s health and social care system. “The vast majority of people accept and want the NHS to be free at the …

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Who wants to be a hero?

Anne Madden, former Health Correspondent of The Irish News and freelance writer. All views my own. In recent commemorations we’ve looked back in anger and dismay at the atrocious waste of life during World War 1. A century ago feckless army generals sent thousands of young soldiers ‘over the top’ with mere hand rifles and bayonets into the line of machine gunfire. The ‘glorious dead’ were celebrated as heroes willing to sacrifice their lives for the nation. While everyone was …

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Pandemics come and go; but smoking, air pollution and poverty are ever present…

The always excellent Dr Phil Hammond gives a much-needed sense of perspective on the Coronavirus outbreak in his latest MD column for Private Eye. Click the image below to enlarge it to read the text, read all 3 images. https://twitter.com/Cymroid/status/1235246441523634178?s=20 They estimate there are around 8.8m early deaths a year worldwide caused by outdoor air pollution alone. Locally in Belfast poor air quality has been linked to 178 deaths in a single year. Last December the air pollution in Letterkenny …

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Soapbox – Here we go again?

SOAPBOX – The PUP’s Councillor John Kyle reflects on the talks process, calling for elected representatives to listen to the voters and move beyond virtue signalling and blaming others to take action and deliver results by overcoming their mutual animosity. “Petty party politics has failed, the people deserve better.”

Where does the buck stop with the health service?

With the ongoing crisis in our public health infrastructure it is important to remember one key element which is not examined in depth, especially in periods of strike action; accountability of management. The media narrative being spun by some that a disgruntled workforce of nurses have exacerbated a crisis ought to be heavily countered and discredited as it is simply untrue. As documented by every outlet during a sitting Stormont administration and since then during the hiatus, the health crisis …

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Americanizing the NHS

I was on a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Finland when I found out my uncle had passed away. We all knew it was coming, but the speed with which it arrived sent my head and heart spinning, because once again I would miss the funeral of a family member. That part of the story is more about being an immigrant; another story for another time. The part of being an immigrant that is relevant here, is …

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“I can not understand why this population is so docile. If you trample on their cultural identity they will riot in the streets. But if their grannies’ legs are literally falling off they just accept it as that’s life…”

Wise words from the good doctor who was interviewed on BBC Spotlight about the health waiting lists. Here we go… number 1 pic.twitter.com/UOUMdhH26W — Adam Turkington (@AdamTurks) December 4, 2019 As you may know, I have written some posts about the health service. It can dismay you how few readers they get. A post on health will get 500 readers; a post on bonfires will get 5000. I have often thought about why this is. The only thing I can …

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Support nurses’ fight for safe and effective care in Northern Ireland…

If you have been stuck in traffic behind a bus somewhere in Northern Ireland this week, you may well have spotted an advertising campaign referencing Northern Ireland’s thousands of missing nurses. This relates to today’s launch, for the first time in its 103-year history, of a Royal College of Nursing [RCN] ballot of members in Northern Ireland on taking industrial action, including strike action, over the nurse staffing crisis in the Health and Social Care service. Nurses have been warning …

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The importance of doing what you can to improve your health…

The wife’s uncle in America has died. Years ago he was like a lot of the population. He was gaining weight, not an unusual situation in this modern world of cheap junk food and sedentary lifestyle. The doctor diagnosed him with type 2 diabetes and prescribed him lots of pills and potions, so far a familiar tale. But what he did next shocked us all – he turned vegan. He had conservative views on many social matters, so I didn’t …

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Northern Ireland outpatient waiting lists are 100 times more than England’s…

FactCheckNI confirms Mark H Durkins comment on the health waiting lists: From the article: CLAIM: 105,486 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland, which is 100 times more than in England, with its population 30 times greater. CONCLUSION: ACCURATE. 105,486 and 1,089 people were waiting over a year for a consultant-led outpatient appointment in Northern Ireland and England, respectively. The estimated population of Northern Ireland and England is 55,977,178 and 1,881,600, respectively. The …

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The impact of Brexit on Health in Northern Ireland…

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg was on Nick Ferrari’s LBC show on Monday 2 September; he was taking phone calls. Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist, called to ask what mortality rates could be expected in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Dr Nicholl wrote the relevant mitigation part in the Operation Yellowhammer document. Rees-Mogg has been characterised in the past as having quite exquisite politeness, extreme almost to farce. He wasn’t at all polite to the caller, saying that this was …

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‘Citizens’ Assembly could help progress with health reform’, suggests Simon Hamilton

The adoption of a citizens’ assembly could assist with making progress with reform of the health service in Northern Ireland, says Simon Hamilton – a DUP MLA and former health and finance minister.  He was interviewed in the latest ‘Forward Together’ podcast. Speaking about the use of citizens’ assemblies in the Republic of Ireland, Simon explains: “They shouldn’t be dismissed instantly just because you didn’t like what some other jurisdiction was doing with them.”  He adds: “I know from my …

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