The change was needed to stop people “voting with their feet” on health, says Professor Bengoa

An international healthcare consultant was back in Belfast on Wednesday, eight years after he wrote a landmark report that set out the way forward for reforming our health system.

Despite the approval of the Executive, progress in implementing the recommendations of the 2016 report is still slow, delayed by both the collapse of the independent government and the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Speaking before the meeting of the health department to speed up the change at the La Mon hotel, Mr. Bengoa said that since the progress was small, it was not right to point out that there has been a failure to implement those developments. .

“I see this (meeting) as progress; I think that all policies – especially in health care – need to be renewed from time to time, to be renewed again,” he said to the Belfast Telegraph.

“A lot of things have happened, but the problem is that most of them may not have reached the ground. We know that we have a battery of tools that help us to move forward and accelerate the things that we were without knowing them before.

“For example, surgical hubs, new ways of using non-GPs in primary care and artificial intelligence, which is coming into the system.

“We have new management tools that will help us accelerate the transition from now on.”

The health expert said the flow of patients into private care is not limited to Northern Ireland and shows people are concerned about the public sector.

“I strongly defend the need to strengthen the public administration again, because people are starting to vote with their feet all over Europe,” he said.

“It’s been brought up in a big way because of this epidemic, where people are looking for private insurance and private providers as an alternative because they’re not getting what they expect from the public system.

“People must understand that administratively, that is not the solution; what we need now is funding and significant investment in the public system to ensure it can handle the pressures it has. the same with all human and chronic diseases.”

Mr. Bengoa said that political parties should put their thoughts on the same side when they are faced with health problems.

He said: “In areas where things are working, governments and politicians started working together to exchange ideas.

“It’s very important because it’s the kind of political organization that we need at a time when the health service is going through a period of crisis.

“It’s not something that can be solved within the health sector, it has to be solved across government.

“Success would mean we’ve got things back on track and the government has been able to work together across the political spectrum and show progress in health care but also in the broader health agenda. “

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt says health care reform is not just his department’s responsibility.

“I’m very keen for us to look at the inequity in access to health care and that will be a challenge as we move towards this new system that I want to introduce,” he said.

“I am talking to the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Home Affairs.

“Employees from these three departments have been given the task of traveling to think about how we can strengthen initiatives such as public transport.

“There are things we can do to address the challenge of people not having easy access to transportation, but I think most people that way, have family and friends willing to take them to and from. or wherever they need to go.”

Mr Nesbitt said he understood some of the opposition to health care reform and the fear that local services would be taken away.

“I understand that for everyone, health care is personal and local, and I’m as guilty of that as anyone,” he said.

“I’ve lived most of my life in the shadow of the mighty Ulster hospital in Dundonald, and I’d like it to do everything, but I have to force myself to think of it as part of hospital network.

“If I need a job, like I want to get it in Ulster, I have to accept that I’d be better off going somewhere else, be it Antrim, Londonderry, Enniskillen, Newry, because that’s the place. .the center of excellence for the style I need.

“So it’s about getting people to start thinking about hospitals as a network, to start thinking about the health service as a hub for Northern Ireland as a whole, rather than something that happens at the end of their streets.

“From there we begin to build those centers of excellence, we begin to develop our doctors and specialists, which will be unique and give good results.”