Debate contribution: Neighbourhood Model of Care
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 13 January 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Neighbourhood Model of Care
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5316152
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The core funding budget is not satisfactory for anybody, including me and the Department. When you break it down into GPs, community pharmacies or the hospital trusts, which are having to save hundreds of millions of pounds in this financial year, as they did last year, that is at the core of the problem. I have a number of concerns, but at the top of my list is the shortfall in next year's budget to do everything that I want to do. When you look at what we must do, which is to keep the current health service functioning, the question is this: how much money can we release for this "save to shift" rather than "spend to save"? Can we spend to move to the shift left model? That will be incredibly challenging in the next year, but the idea is to try to get everybody, or, at least, as many people as possible, to the starting line for 1 April. Rolling out a neighbourhood model will not be done in a month or a year or even in this mandate. It could be a five- to-10-year project, but the idea is to start it on 1 April in certain areas at least and prove evidentially that it works, so that we create the desire around the rest of the country to be next in line to join the model.
231 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.95).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.95 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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