Self-Preservation Of Health Executives Is Destroying The Health Service In Northern Ireland5/9/2013 Self-Preservation Of Health Executives Is Destroying The Health Service In Northern Ireland
Due to recent developments within the NHSCT, Save The Mid have lobbied MLA's to ask the health Minister several questions to help highlight what is going on inside the Trust
Health Minister announces new appointments to Northern Trust for next stage of turnaround
2 May 2013 Health Minister Edwin Poots today announced the appointment of two senior executives to the Northern Health and Social Care Trust to lead on the next stages of turnaround in order to improve performance in critical areas of service delivery. Between March 2012 and March 2013:
Dear Minister, Edwin Poots,
In relation to the current crisis at Antrim Hospital, we at Save The Mid believe that this is a direct result of removing both the A&E and Acute wards at the Mid Ulster Hospital. In 2006 a risk assessment carried out by Deloitte Touché stated that the highest risk to services at Antrim Hospital would be to downgrade the Mid Ulster Hospital to its current status. Editor's Viewpoint – 11 April 2013
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/editors-viewpoint/trust-fall-guy-right-to-question-sacking-29189022.html The row between the former chairman of the Northern Trust Jim Stewart and Health Minister Edwin Poots has got very personal. Mr Stewart was sacked by the minister and now he is demanding that Mr Poots should resign, arguing that statistics on breaches of waiting time targets at Antrim Area Hospital show that demands on the accident and emergency service are neither realistic nor achievable. And he presents a quite compelling case showing that in March – even with extra resources and additional expertise from Britain – there were 299 breaches of the 12-hour limit patients should wait to receive treatment compared to 94 in the same month last year. Mr Stewart's sacking after a public row with the minister over targets was strange given that heads seldom roll in the health service. For example, there was no similar action taken against anyone for the deaths of four babies in the pseudomonas outbreaks in Belfast and Londonderry a year ago. Where the truth, or even the moral high ground, in the current row lies is something to be decided on another day. It would be more fruitful to examine if current A&E provision in the province is adequate to meet demand. The public perception certainly is that it is not. While targets can be a meaningful way of ensuring efficient use of resources, the results can be massaged to indicate better performance than is actually achieved. The minister might usefully look again at targets across the NHS to ensure that they set achievable outcomes without prejudicing care, which is, after all, the primary duty of the service. There is no doubt that staff in hospitals are under increasing pressure and no good purpose is served by blaming them when they fall short of arbitrary treatment times. Staff have no control over who, or how many, turn up at hospital doors, particularly during winter months and that should always be borne in mind, even by Mr Poots. Health Minister, Edwin Poots today gave the go-ahead for two new £40m health centres. Still births instances in Northern Ireland have increased since 2011
A stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. A wide variety of definitions exist. Once the fetus has died, the mother may or may not have contractions and undergo childbirth. The term is often used in distinction to live birth or miscarriage and the word miscarriage is oftentimes used incorrectly to describe stillbirths. Most stillbirths occur in full-term pregnancies. In Northern Ireland the Births and Deaths Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1976[3], as amended contains the definition :- “still-birth” means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother after the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy of a child which did not at any time after being completely expelled or extracted breathe or show any other evidence of life. Registration of still-births can be made by a relative or certain other persons involved with the still-birth but it is not compulsory to do so. |
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