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Mr Mike Nesbitt: Assembly records
All of Mr Mike Nesbitt’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
Absolutely. I will not quote figures to the Member, but we started with nursing and have reduced our reliance on agency nurses. Actually, we have cut it out. The focus now is on locums, who are very expensive, as the Member will be aware. We have asked one of the chief executives of the five geographic health and…
Given the focus that I have had, since being elected in 2011, on mental health and well-being and, since I took up post as Minister, on health inequalities, I will try to be a bit more specific about a range of actions that, at low or no additional cost, will potentially help alleviate pressures in the psychiatric…
I am acutely aware of the workforce challenges in consultant psychiatry in the Western Trust and, indeed, across the region. A number of actions are being progressed. In response to action 32 of the mental health strategy, a mental health workforce review report was published in July 2023 that set out 18…
On the first point, absolutely we want to get to the bottom of it and understand what happened, why it happened and who was responsible. However, I am not going to jump the gun. I assure the Member that, when we find out who is responsible, we will take the appropriate action. As to the second part of the Member's…
I am not aware of whether we have looked at the model in Portugal, but I assure Mr Carroll that we will certainly take that away. It may be of interest, as a bit of a tangent, that I was at a four-nations ministerial meeting on substance use last week, and the question of whether Portugal was leading the way in…
In a recent response to a question for written answer from the Member on the same topic, I welcomed the report by the UK Parliament's Women and Equalities Committee on women's reproductive health conditions. It highlighted the fact that women often find that their pain is normalised or dismissed when they seek medical…
I thank the Member for his question. It is the first time that I have had the opportunity to welcome him onto the Floor of the Chamber. My number one for men's health is suicide. It is a major risk factor for men. Suicide is a major cause of death, particularly for men under the age of 50. Cardiovascular disease is…
I am aware of that research, and my Department has been looking at it. However, I will have to write to the Member with the detail because I do not have that off the top of my head.
I thank the Member for his supplementary question, because it takes me to my Live Better initiative. When I took up post, one of the most shocking reports that I saw was on health inequalities. This year's health inequalities report is out. It confirms that the difference in healthy life expectancy between people…
Evidence suggests that men are disproportionately affected by certain conditions, such as some types of heart disease, and smoking; indeed, more men than women die by suicide. The inequalities in men's health are stark. On average, those in more deprived areas are much more likely to die early than those in the least…
The answer to your question is, as I outlined, the £5 million of additional moneys through the elective care framework implementation plan. I acknowledge that there are explanations — not excuses — for what happened. For example, it was over the summer, and the workforce was challenged because people need their summer…
I absolutely agree with the Member. He will be aware that, during my time as Minister of Health, one of my objectives is to ensure that, whatever the condition or process or entry point for a patient or service user into our Health and Social Care (HSC) system anywhere in Northern Ireland, the patient receives a…
An eight-, nine-, 10- or 11-week wait is not acceptable to me, patients or their families: I get it. However, the postcode lottery that was in place before I introduced the regional booking service was equally unacceptable. You could have been living a mile away from a trust that was seeing all or nearly all its…
As I said to the Member, £5 million has been allocated through the elective care framework implementation plan. That will strengthen long-term resilience and reduce reliance on temporary measures. We must get rid of temporary measures and install resilience. On my actions to deal with the immediate pressures, the…
I am most exercised by the fact that, for far too long, patients have faced unequal access to timely breast cancer assessments. In one geographic part of the country, we were consistently meeting the 14-day target, while, in others, fewer than 10% of patients were seen within that time frame. The regional system was…
Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you very much, and thank you to Mrs Dodds for stepping in for Deborah. When Deborah arrived here, she very quickly established a reputation for being a respected and effective Member of the legislative Assembly, but tonight, of course, the focus is not on Deborah the politician. It is on…
Thank you very much, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I thank the Members who contributed to the debate. Their thoughtful contributions gave me a sense of a collective commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of those with mental health conditions, learning disabilities or a diagnosis of autism. I will not…
I beg to move Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. The Mental Health Bill introduced in the UK Parliament in November last year reforms the Mental Health Act 1983, which governs compulsory detention and treatment in England and Wales. That Act is the equivalent of our Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. This…
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Mr Burrows made his maiden speech seven hours and 18 minutes after the first session that he was available to attend. Can you check with the Speaker's Office whether that is a new record?
Just before I respond to Mrs Dillon, I want to address something that I have not addressed, which is the idea that the plan was in the public domain before I briefed the Executive. I can confirm that that was the case because we did not make the announcement; it came via the Rainbow Project. To Mrs Dillon, the beauty…
The stakeholders, including the Rainbow Project, were brought into discussions about the way forward. That is entirely consistent with co-design, so I do not get the implication in the question that, somehow, that was wrong. The matter of regret for me is that it asked for and was given permission to talk to the wider…
Let me put it this way, which, I hope, will be an assurance to the Member: if I were given incontrovertible evidence that that sort of thing was happening and was being promulgated by a member of the workforce delivering gender identity services, I would want to eyeball that person and say, "At least one of us has to…
I acknowledge the statistic that the Member brought up about the five-year-old. I want to be clear that that did not happen on my watch; that was some time ago. I have already made it clear to the House that there will be no attempt to persuade, coerce or force a young person to move towards the most radical and…
On the Member's last point, I have met families who are not happy that the pathway into Knowing our Identity is via CAMHS, because it is a mental health service. I am aware of that, but we have not been able to come up with a suitable alternative, so I am afraid that CAMHS it is. I agree with the Member that we need…