Health Minister hopes speech by Professor Bengoa will help 'reboot' reform of NI health service

The reform of health and social care in Northern Ireland is about more than reconfiguring hospital services, Stormont’s Health Minister has said.

Mike Nesbitt was speaking ahead of a speech by the expert who led a major review in reforming Northern Ireland's health service in 2016.

The plan announced by Professor Rafael Bengoa was never fully implemented amid the collapse of two assemblies and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Nesbitt said he hopes Prof Bengoa’s speech will help “refocus attention on what needs to be done."

Professor Bengoa will speak at a conference later today.

He said he had invited the health policy expert back to Northern Ireland as one of his first initiatives after taking on the Stormont ministry in May in order to “reboot the reform agenda and to provide his assessment of what needs to be done."

“Systems Not Structures was about much more than our hospitals. It’s about fundamentally rebalancing provision to provide more care at community level, to focus on prevention rather than treatment, and to help people manage conditions and live long healthy lives,” he said.

“Reconfiguring hospital services remains an important part of the overall jigsaw, as I emphasised last week when I launched the Hospitals – Creating A Network For Better Outcomes document for public consultation.

“I have also on many occasions stressed that improving population health and tackling health inequalities are among my key areas of focus.

“We can only hope to achieve this, and deliver meaningful reform, if we adopt a whole-government approach with support right across the Executive, the wider public sector, our communities and our clinicians.”

Speaking ahead of his address, Professor Bengoa said he welcomes the opportunity to see how health transformation remains an overriding priority in Northern Ireland.

“I am, of course, very aware of the challenges Northern Ireland’s health service has faced over the period since 2016,” he said.

“It is by no means unique in that regard. Right across Europe, there are major struggles on a number of fronts.

“These include balancing short term pressures with long term reform needs, dealing with growing demand and greater patient complexity, and recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The analysis in Systems Not Structures is just as valid today as when it was published and the need for transformation, backed by sustained resources, is ever more pressing.”

Prof Bengoa has worked for the World Health Organisation in Copenhagen and Geneva and co-authored numerous health care policy documents in Spain and internationally.