Expert committee announced for HSC changes
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has published the outcome of its Hospitals – Creating a Network for Better Outcomes consultation and announced a new Independent Reconfiguration Committee to advise on significant changes to Health and Social Care services.
The IBMS responded to the consultation, supporting the overall direction of travel while highlighting that pathology and diagnostics needed greater consideration within plans for service change. We called for pathology experts and professional bodies to be involved in decision-making, alongside proper consideration of diagnostic capacity, workforce pressures and the specialist skills needed to support new models of care.
We also pointed to work already under way to integrate pathology services across Northern Ireland, where clinical and scientific staff are helping to shape the changes. Our response argued that this kind of professional input should also be part of wider decisions about hospital services.
The new committee will bring together independent clinical and public-interest expertise to advise the Health Minister on significant proposals for permanent changes to Health and Social Care services. It will consider patient safety, service quality, clinical effectiveness and long-term sustainability, as well as whether the evidence and options behind individual proposals are robust. Its advice will be published, although final decisions will remain with the Minister.
Alongside this, the Department will review its guidance on changing or withdrawing services, with a greater focus on transparency, the quality of evidence, involving staff and communities earlier, and the impact of changes on rural communities and equality. It has also paused plans to classify hospitals as Local, Area and General Hospitals and Regional Centres while the proposed model and terminology are reconsidered.
David Wells, Chief Executive of the Institute of Biomedical Science, said:
We supported the ambition to create more sustainable hospital services, but our consultation response highlighted the need to consider the diagnostic services that underpin patient care.
“As the next stage of this work develops, it will be important to understand what changes mean for laboratory capacity, the biomedical science workforce and the skills needed to deliver services safely and effectively. We will continue to represent that perspective on behalf of the profession.
The IBMS will continue to follow the development of the committee and the wider hospital reform programme and keep members in Northern Ireland informed.
Read the Department of Health announcement.