Northern Ireland: Health service overhaul set to close half of care homes

At least half of state-run residential care homes in Northern Ireland are to close under a £70 million overhaul of the health service.

In a statement that Health Minister Edwin Poots made to the Stormont Assembly, 56 homes are currently owned by the health service, but this figure is set to be cut to 28 over the next 5 years. This would account for a loss of 800 places, and has been criticised by some Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) as a step closer to privatising care services.

Mr Poots addressed MLAs on the next stage of how he intends to transform the delivery of health and social care services. He said the proposals were "focused on ensuring that more services are provided in the community, closer to people's homes where possible.” He promised that the proposed changes were, "not about cost-cutting but were about improving service delivery and making better use of resources."

The minister also allayed fears by stating that he expected the small reduction in staff numbers could be managed "without the need for compulsory redundancies". His ‘Transforming Your Care’ (TYC) reform agenda is aimed at changing how care is delivered, with more emphasis on enabling older people to remain at home in their later years.  The number of older people in Northern Ireland is expected to increase by 18% by 2022.
2,667 people are currently registered with dementia in Belfast alone, and the city's health trust is aware it will have to increase service provision for that generation in the next 10 years.

The new system will assemble a “core team” of community nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and GPs. This team will be based in a well-being and treatment hub or in local health and community facilities, rather than at hospitals. In order to deliver this plan, it is thought that about 5% of the hospital budget will need to be transferred to the community budget.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed concern about whether enough resources would be pumped into supporting the new system. The time frame for change to unfold is between three to five years.

The Information Daily

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