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.
I will come back to the Member on the exact number, because I do not have it to hand. Consent is a crucial issue. Knowing our Identity, or KOI, is a service that comes under the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and, as with all CAMHS services, parental participation and consent are required. The…
When I spoke to Dr Cass, I asked her whether she was prepared to come to Belfast in order to conduct a short, sharp quality assurance review of our gender identity service. She has agreed to come with a small team of independent experts to do that in the coming weeks. I can confirm that the service will not be an…
Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you very much. Once again, I thank everybody who participated in this short but important debate. The Chair of the Health Committee raised one point that I need to come back to. Some time ago, I was made aware that there was an issue with the secondary use of data. It is a fact that there is a…
I beg to move Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I very much welcome the opportunity to debate the motion. It seeks Assembly endorsement in principle to the extension to Northern Ireland of clause 1 of the Rare Cancers Bill. The Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 16 October last by Dr Scott Arthur of…
I do not think that it does, because the board has to operate within terms of reference and within the law, and the Bill will, hopefully, become the law. I understand that you are uneasy about that — we would all be right to question, observe and monitor how that is operated — but I see no other practical way of doing…
Deputy Speaker, thank you very much. What an informative debate . I very much look forward to the next stage, assuming that this stage is approved by Members. I thank the Chair of the Committee, the Deputy Chair of the Committee, Committee members and Mr Frew for their comments. It is clear that this issue is of…
I beg to move I am delighted to open this first debate on the Adult Protection Bill. It has been a long time coming. In fact, it was January 2020 — five and a half years ago — when the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland published his report, 'Home Truths', on his investigation into Dunmurry Manor care…
Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, thank you. I also thank the Chair and the Deputy Chair of the Committee and Mr McGrath for his comments. In the current challenging healthcare climate, all policy options that improve efficiency and potentially increase the level of service to patients are to be welcomed. I believe that…
I beg to move Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I seek the Assembly's approval of the draft statutory instrument (SI), which will amend the Medicines Act 1968 and the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 — the "HMRs". The amendments are aimed at enabling all community pharmacies to access hub-and-spoke dispensing…
Legislative Consent Motion: Mental Health Bill That this Assembly endorses the principle of extending the amendment to the UK Mental Health Bill to Northern Ireland, to ensure private providers delivering publicly funded mental health services are accountable under the Human Rights Act 1998, insofar as the provisions…
I beg to introduce the Adult Protection Bill [NIA 16/22-27], which is a Bill to make provision for the purposes of protecting adults from harm; and for connected purposes.
As the Member will know, the BMA GP Committee did not like the contract offer that was put to it this year; it wanted another £80 million, as well as to look at things such as indemnity and National Insurance contribution hikes and the rest. I was disappointed that we were not able to discuss access arrangements in…
There are a number of factors that inhibit the filling of all those vacancies. One is location. I think that it is well understood that some consultants are unwilling to travel to some of the points furthest away from Belfast. Belfast becomes a kind of Mecca or magnetic centre point for the delivery of healthcare. In…
As I said earlier in the session, although you need buildings, beds, equipment and medicines to deliver healthcare, all of that is as nothing, if you do not have the right workforce. The Member has identified just one of the many areas in which we have too many vacancies, to the point where the delivery of better…
The answer to that is, "Yes but not by the Department, by the trusts". I assure the Member that, last year, the trusts had protocols in place to help international colleagues with practical things. Some international colleagues were afraid to use public transport to get to and from work for fear of intimidation and…
I thank the Member for the question. I have been public about this. While we have received no evidence to date that any of the people who were subject to the racist attacks are international colleagues working in delivering healthcare in the Health and Social Care system, I am aware that, last year, several valued…
For the avoidance of doubt, I declare an interest, as my sister is a custody visitor. She gives me a narrative of her experiences sometimes. The bottom line is that I thought that Health and the PSNI were getting a lot better at understanding where people should be placed. For example, people with severe mental health…
I understand the angle that the Chair of the Justice Committee is coming from. It is not an area that has been a focus of mine, so I am more than happy to take it away and listen to whatever the Member has to say by way of follow-up.
I thank the Member for her question. I express my condolences to Mr Blair on his loss. Neurology was one of the areas where we were looking at a really bad situation. I need to write to the Member because I do not want to misspeak on such a serious issue.
I say yes to the Member. I said that I would intervene on a number of levels. Peter McBride going in to look at the culture and behaviours and where they are wrong is number 1. Number 2 will involve putting in someone external who has expertise in what I call "clinical teamwork", which is a direct reference to the…
I think that I can say yes to that, but I want to be specific about it; in fact, after the sitting, before the day is out, I will meet Peter McBride. The Member knows that I have asked him to be my eyes and ears in assessing the adverse cultural and behavioural issues not just in the cardiac surgery unit but across…
I assure the Member that work on the proposed changes to the legislation remains a key focus for my Department and that I am committed to ensuring that that work is completed without undue delay. The public consultation on the proposed eligibility criteria for passporting universal credit recipients closed on 10…
I do not have a definitive timeline for that work. It falls into a broader category. Indeed, yesterday I was with representatives from Belfast City Council talking about their Complex Lives proposals, which seem to work extremely well. I have agreed that I will try to get a multi-departmental meeting with the council…