Poots’ 100% ‘without walls’ health pledge

HEALTH Minister Edwin Poots has called for 100 per cent commitment to ‘without walls’ reform in the local health service, which will be geared towards preventing unnecessary hospital visits and ensuring patients are cared for closer to home.
Pictured at the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) conference in Londonderry: Gerard Guckian, Western Trust Chairman and Chair of NICON; Sean Donaghey, Chief Executive, Northern Trust; John Compton, Chief Executive, Health and Social Care Board; Elaine Way, Chief Executive, Western Trust; Mike Farrar, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation; Hugh McCaughey, Chief Executive, South Eastern Trust; Andrew McCormick, Permanent Secretary, DHSSPS and Mairead McAlinden, Chief Executive, Southern Trust and NICON Vice Chair.Pictured at the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) conference in Londonderry: Gerard Guckian, Western Trust Chairman and Chair of NICON; Sean Donaghey, Chief Executive, Northern Trust; John Compton, Chief Executive, Health and Social Care Board; Elaine Way, Chief Executive, Western Trust; Mike Farrar, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation; Hugh McCaughey, Chief Executive, South Eastern Trust; Andrew McCormick, Permanent Secretary, DHSSPS and Mairead McAlinden, Chief Executive, Southern Trust and NICON Vice Chair.
Pictured at the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) conference in Londonderry: Gerard Guckian, Western Trust Chairman and Chair of NICON; Sean Donaghey, Chief Executive, Northern Trust; John Compton, Chief Executive, Health and Social Care Board; Elaine Way, Chief Executive, Western Trust; Mike Farrar, Chief Executive, NHS Confederation; Hugh McCaughey, Chief Executive, South Eastern Trust; Andrew McCormick, Permanent Secretary, DHSSPS and Mairead McAlinden, Chief Executive, Southern Trust and NICON Vice Chair.

Mr Poots told health bosses at a conference in Londonderry: “We need to be 100 per cent committed to change. Change is inevitable and it is up to each of us to embrace it, to learn from it and from each other and to make the decisions and take the action that improves outcomes for patients, clients and service users.

“We all want the best quality of care for our families - and that means care which is focussed on achieving the best outcomes for our patients and service users.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“This is embedded in the aims of Transforming Your Care (TYC) and will remain at the core of my vision for our health and social care system.”

Mr Poots was one of the speakers at the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) conference at the Millennium Forum in Londonderry.

Addressing a host of local health care bosses, he said more people will be cared for outside of our hospitals in future.

“With all parts of the system working closer together, we can prevent unnecessary hospital visits and help to ensure that patients are cared for closer to home.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It is this ‘without walls’ approach which will need to characterise so much of our approach to the future of health and social care services,” he said.

The Minister highlighted the importance of innovation, saying: “If we are truly to embed innovation, we must become less risk averse - as individuals, as organisations, as a system.

“Accountability and an evidence base are clearly essential but our leaders need the freedom to develop ideas. We need to be quicker at recognising better practice and implementing it more broadly.”

He said he wanted people to attempt new things and accepted they wouldn’t always work.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I want leaders who are willing to do things differently. Every initiative won’t always work. But I’ll value those who try and don’t always succeed over those who don’t take that risk,” he said.

Gerard Guckian, Chairman of NICON, commented: “We are delighted to bring the conference to Derry/Londonderry in its City of Culture 2013 year.

“Health and Social Care in the City and indeed throughout Northern Ireland is changing. We need to get involved in the conversation of change and ensure we cater for the needs of our patients and clients well into the future.

“We want to provide the best care possible; to keep people well and provide care at home or closer to it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“To do this everyone involved in health and social care will need to work and think differently. Using technology, providing services in the community, innovating, working across disciplines, building new partnerships, changing where services are provided - this conference will help us all create an environment to successfully deliver the change.”

Related topics: