TY - BOOK
T1 - Health, Equality and the Economy
AU - Heenan, Deirdre
AU - Birrell, Derek
AU - Johnston, Richard
AU - Horgan, Goretti
AU - Leavey, Gerard
AU - O'Neill, Siobhan
AU - Ennis, Edel
AU - McLafferty, Margaret
AU - Gstrein, Vanessa
AU - Murphy, Marie H
AU - McNulty, Helene
AU - Gray, Ann
AU - Ryan, A
AU - McLaughlin, James
AU - Bjourson, AJ
AU - Dubras, Louise
A2 - Gormley-Heenan, Cathy
A2 - Lackermeier, Elaine
A2 - Gormley-Heenan, Cathy
PY - 2020/12/9
Y1 - 2020/12/9
N2 - New Decade, New Approach (NDNA),a new Health Minister for NorthernIreland (the UUP’s Robin Swann), arenewed commitment to addressingthe plethora of problems within thehealth and social care system inNorthern Ireland coupled with theoutworkings and implications of theglobal pandemic in COVID-19 hasmeant that this report on health policyand its associated recommendationscould not be timelier. The issues facingus do not need rehearsing again. Weknow the challenges facing health andsocial care. And as the Departmentof Health has said, the solutions arealso challenging because ‘they requiresustained investment to addressbacklogs and build our workforce, aswell as the radical reshaping of services’.The funding provided in NDNA does notappear to be enough already.It is of course important to note that many of theproblems we face predated the collapse of thepower sharing institutions early 2017. They werenot simply caused by three years of a politicalvacuum, albeit they were exacerbated by it. Inthe absence of a Health Minister, questions wereasked about who was actually setting health policyin Northern Ireland1. But there have been plentyof health policy recommendations over the years,so in many ways health policy had already beenset. As Birrell and Heenan point out in chapter1, Northern Ireland has a long history of healthreviews and recommendations but implementationhas been problematic. The policy direction inthese reviews has been consistent, to shift serviceprovision away from hospitals and towards care inthe community, as close to home as possible.We have taken this one step further. Drawing onextensive expertise in the health and social caresystem from across Ulster University, our reportHealth, Equality and the Economy sets out whatwe believe health policy in Northern Irelandneeds to focus on, beyond reducing waiting lists,building a workforce and reshaping services awayfrom hospitals towards the community. From ourUU Economic Policy Centre perspective, RichardJohnston points out in chapter 2, much of the focusto date has been on healthcare spending, thatis, how much more do we need, on what do weneed to spend it specifically and over what term?He rightly questions whether more funding willsolve the problems and argues that what we mustdo as a society is to support the hard decisions thatincrease efficiency, reduce waste and duplicationand encourage our citizens to become moreresponsible users of healthcare services.The issue of responsible citizenship in healthcareis something that Marie Murphy picks up onin chapter 7. While pointing out that physicalinactivity is the fourth leading cause of deathworldwide, she notes that Northern Ireland hasnot had a standalone Physical Activity strategysince the expiration of the Be Active Be Healthy– The Northern Ireland Physical Activity Strategy1996-2002. She argues that Northern Irelandneeds a policy now, one where physical activitycan and should be integrated into the environmentwhere people live, work, are educated and playthrough a cohesive government-led policy withjoined up actions created and owned by multiplestakeholders, including the public themselves.Of course, greater efficiencies are made infinitely easier through the mainstreaming of healthcare innovations. As Jim McLaughlin notes in chapter 11, it is now obvious that we are entering into the age of Healthcare 4.0 with challenges that need to be urgently met. Key to these challenges is the upskilling and training of our workforce in the use of digital healthcare technologies. Efficiencies can also be accelerated through a more personalised approach to medicine. Tony Bjourson’s chapter 12 emphasises the need to incorporate genomic education as a core component in all clinical education pathways to drive more evidence-based diagnoses, treatments and medicines optimisation. And these are just a few examples. Our contributors could have said much, much more, but we’ve kept it brief for now. Policy briefs should be brief!
AB - New Decade, New Approach (NDNA),a new Health Minister for NorthernIreland (the UUP’s Robin Swann), arenewed commitment to addressingthe plethora of problems within thehealth and social care system inNorthern Ireland coupled with theoutworkings and implications of theglobal pandemic in COVID-19 hasmeant that this report on health policyand its associated recommendationscould not be timelier. The issues facingus do not need rehearsing again. Weknow the challenges facing health andsocial care. And as the Departmentof Health has said, the solutions arealso challenging because ‘they requiresustained investment to addressbacklogs and build our workforce, aswell as the radical reshaping of services’.The funding provided in NDNA does notappear to be enough already.It is of course important to note that many of theproblems we face predated the collapse of thepower sharing institutions early 2017. They werenot simply caused by three years of a politicalvacuum, albeit they were exacerbated by it. Inthe absence of a Health Minister, questions wereasked about who was actually setting health policyin Northern Ireland1. But there have been plentyof health policy recommendations over the years,so in many ways health policy had already beenset. As Birrell and Heenan point out in chapter1, Northern Ireland has a long history of healthreviews and recommendations but implementationhas been problematic. The policy direction inthese reviews has been consistent, to shift serviceprovision away from hospitals and towards care inthe community, as close to home as possible.We have taken this one step further. Drawing onextensive expertise in the health and social caresystem from across Ulster University, our reportHealth, Equality and the Economy sets out whatwe believe health policy in Northern Irelandneeds to focus on, beyond reducing waiting lists,building a workforce and reshaping services awayfrom hospitals towards the community. From ourUU Economic Policy Centre perspective, RichardJohnston points out in chapter 2, much of the focusto date has been on healthcare spending, thatis, how much more do we need, on what do weneed to spend it specifically and over what term?He rightly questions whether more funding willsolve the problems and argues that what we mustdo as a society is to support the hard decisions thatincrease efficiency, reduce waste and duplicationand encourage our citizens to become moreresponsible users of healthcare services.The issue of responsible citizenship in healthcareis something that Marie Murphy picks up onin chapter 7. While pointing out that physicalinactivity is the fourth leading cause of deathworldwide, she notes that Northern Ireland hasnot had a standalone Physical Activity strategysince the expiration of the Be Active Be Healthy– The Northern Ireland Physical Activity Strategy1996-2002. She argues that Northern Irelandneeds a policy now, one where physical activitycan and should be integrated into the environmentwhere people live, work, are educated and playthrough a cohesive government-led policy withjoined up actions created and owned by multiplestakeholders, including the public themselves.Of course, greater efficiencies are made infinitely easier through the mainstreaming of healthcare innovations. As Jim McLaughlin notes in chapter 11, it is now obvious that we are entering into the age of Healthcare 4.0 with challenges that need to be urgently met. Key to these challenges is the upskilling and training of our workforce in the use of digital healthcare technologies. Efficiencies can also be accelerated through a more personalised approach to medicine. Tony Bjourson’s chapter 12 emphasises the need to incorporate genomic education as a core component in all clinical education pathways to drive more evidence-based diagnoses, treatments and medicines optimisation. And these are just a few examples. Our contributors could have said much, much more, but we’ve kept it brief for now. Policy briefs should be brief!
M3 - Other report
BT - Health, Equality and the Economy
PB - Ulster University
ER -