Debate contribution: Health Service Transformation: Funding

Debate contribution by Mr Mark Durkan on 17 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Mark Durkan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

17 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Health Service Transformation: Funding

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4537010

Read the official Assembly record

Text

We also support the motion and the amendment. Years of inaction, underinvestment and political paralysis have pushed our health service into a state of emergency. For five of the past seven years, we have been without a functioning Government, unable to drive or fund the transformation that our health system so desperately needs. Instead of facing that truth, those in power attempt to obscure the harsh realities and shift the blame solely onto Westminster. We waited for some time with bated breath for a Programme for Government (PFG). We knew that it would not fix the crisis in health, but we hoped that it would at least provide a costed framework with measurable and specific targets. Not only has the draft PFG not offered solutions, but Executive parties could not even get the detail right, with the Health Minister subsequently forced to clarify that the purported £76 million investment to address waiting lists this year was, in fact, old money to address critical categories and will not make a dent in the current waiting lists. It was more smoke and mirrors. Accountability is glaringly absent. The constant reference to budget pressures attempts to gloss over negligence and the lack of duty of care of previous and current leadership parties. The need for transformation is more obvious than ever. One sometimes gets the sense that Bengoa is being used as a fig leaf for every collapse and closure across the health service, but it cannot be used like that. People want transformation that will mean that they can access treatment sooner. We support the motion and will do all that we can to ensure that transformation is funded. We need to invest to save. On publication, the Bengoa report, like 'Transforming Your Care' years before it, was heralded as a road map to better healthcare. At the time, I warned that a road map to a better destination is great but not much good if you do not have the money to put petrol in the tank. It is important that we get the money to fund actual transformation. The Darwinian approach to transformation and health needs to be challenged. Recent cuts such as those to phlebotomy and vasectomy services — procedures that GPs delivered at a snip of the price — demonstrate a worrying trend. While I appreciate that some of the cuts have been reversed, the underlying issue remains. Newer, actually transformative and cost-saving services that truly make a difference are being sacrificed due to an apparent last-in, first-out approach. Enshrined services and the "way we do things" policy are being retained amid budget pressures. If I may be a wee bit parochial, the Western Trust is valiantly served by super health workers who are awfully served by the current capitation formula, which must also be reviewed before it becomes a formula for capitulation. The current system is perverse. We have patients crossing the border in busloads from the South for procedures in the North such as cataract surgeries, while patients here cannot access the same treatment in a timely manner. Would you rather travel for two hours or wait for two years for healthcare? That is the question that we need to ask. Clearly, a more strategic, all-island healthcare model would benefit everyone, ensuring quicker access to vital treatment and better health outcomes across the board. The success of the ROI reimbursement scheme is testament to the need to drive cross-border solutions. I would very much welcome the return of that scheme as an interim solution to assist with the agonising wait for elective surgery. People want an Executive that will do what matters most, not one that just says that they will. That means transparency on moneys that are invested and budget cuts that are applied and a workable framework that offers a ladder for our health service to climb out of the dark depths to which it has been consigned.

654 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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