Health Minister Defends Timeline On Dealing With Winter Pressures

The wellness curate has defended his department's timeline for initiating a scheme to woody pinch wintertime pressures connected nan wellness service.

Mike Nesbitt said a scheme has been developed but has not yet been finalised and will beryllium published connected Thursday.

It comes successful consequence to comments made by Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister, complete what she described arsenic a "shocking" deficiency of accusation connected really wintertime pressures will beryllium managed.

Meanwhile, speaking astatine a convention connected Wednesday morning, Nesbitt hailed "quite singular success" successful a caller driblet connected outpatient waiting lists.

McAllister said assembly members had been raising nan rumor of nan department's wintertime preparedness scheme since January, but that thing had yet been published.

She said accusation provided to nan wellness committee to day had been "inadequate" and lacking successful detail, contempt nan work already facing pressures.

BBC News NI has seen a leaked position insubstantial entitled The Big Discussion from nan Department of Health, which it is understood will beryllium presented to Stormont's wellness committee connected Thursday.

The archive outlines pressures connected nan wellness work and points to areas that request improvement.

The Department of Health said nan archive was not its wintertime preparedness plan, but alternatively 1 of a number of documents which were ne'er intended to beryllium action specific, and which "formed portion of nan extended chat and applicable activity which has been taking spot crossed nan wellness and societal attraction system".

It added that it had already mobilised an extended vaccination programme, to minimise nan effect from wintertime infections specified arsenic influenza, respiratory syncytial microorganism (RSV) and Covid-19.

McAllister said that nan curate and nan section "have not brought immoderate accusation connected what precisely they are doing to amended hole hospitals and unit for nan pressures they are already facing".

She added it was "not acceptable" that a wintertime preparedness scheme had not already been published, and that she understood nan wellness assemblage was not happy either.

She besides described nan inadequate level of accusation fixed to nan wellness committee arsenic "shocking".

However speaking connected Wednesday, nan curate said: "We are successful mid-October, I americium wished to get it retired up of past years plan, which was published successful November."

Admitting that pressures connected nan wellness work were "bad" past year, nan curate said nan logic nan scheme has not yet been published is owed to "operational delivery".

"There is not a last signed-off plan, and nan logic for that is each of nan operational transportation will beryllium performed by nan 5 geographically defined wellness and societal attraction trusts, they person to input their plans into our wide maestro plan," he said.

Speaking astatine nan Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) convention connected Wednesday morning, Nesbitt referenced caller figures which outline a autumn successful nan number of group waiting much than 4 years for an outpatient assignment successful Northern Ireland.

He said nan fig has fallen by almost a quarter, which is balanced to 24,811 less patients.

Over nan aforesaid period, he said, nan number of group waiting much than 4 years for curen reduced by 33%, a autumn of 6,683 patients.

He said that up of nan wintertime preparedness scheme being published, nan driblet successful waiting lists "will hopefully help".

However, McAllister said she would beryllium "embarrassed" if she was nan Department of Health attending Stormont's wellness committee connected Thursday.

"It's excessively precocious now, moving forward, we person to make judge that it works, because we can't spot nan aforesaid scenes each azygous twelvemonth wherever our aesculapian unit are put nether immense pressure, but diligent outcomes are poor, thing has sewage to change."