Closer co-operation between regions is vital to health sustainability (Northern Ireland and Spain)

Citation

(2013), "Closer co-operation between regions is vital to health sustainability (Northern Ireland and Spain)", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS.21126daa.006

Closer co-operation between regions is vital to health sustainability (Northern Ireland and Spain)

Article Type:

News and views

From:

Leadership in Health Services, Volume 26, Issue 4

Keywords: Health care demand and sustainable health and social care systems, Shared national healthcare policies, Improved health and well being

Northern Ireland must look beyond its own borders when tackling the sustainability of its health and social care system, NI Health Minister Edwin Poots has said.

Speaking at the Making National Health Systems Sustainable conference at the British Embassy in Madrid, Mr Poots said: “Across Europe, people are living longer and this is a triumph of modern medicine of which we should be proud. However, more people are living with chronic diseases and this places ever-increasing demands on our resources. In Northern Ireland, our average annual health and social care expenditure on a person over 65 years is around £5,000. As the number of older people increases, the cost will too.”

Organised by UK Trade and Investment and the British Embassy in Spain, the one-day event in Madrid was also addressed by senior representatives from the UK Department of Health and the Spanish Health Ministry as well a regional leaders from Scotland, Madrid, Andalusia, Galicia, Castilla and the Basque Country.

Addressing the audience, Mr Poots said: “As regional governments, we all face the same issues, and yet at the same time, we have different approaches. Today’s event offers us a valuable opportunity, not only to share our experiences and expertise so we can learn, but also to forge new relationships.

“While we all face the demands of our growing and ageing population, we are also seeing advances in medical science which require us to innovate. These advances have a critical role to play in making healthcare more accessible, as well as more cost-effective. We should collaborate to take advantage. Technology, innovation and new thinking extend beyond borders and that is why we need to share and embrace new and better ways of working, to ensure that we are continuing to deliver the high quality health and social care.”

The Minister encouraged delegates to consider using Northern Ireland in product development in health.

“Northern Ireland is a small country but it has made a name for itself in health innovation. Its population and geography makes it an ideal test ground for researching the effectiveness of new technology,” he said.

Northern Ireland has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Basque region which was signed by Mr Poots in Belfast in November last year. Under it, both governments have agreed greater co-operation and collaboration in taking forward: Connected Health and eHealth solutions, to contribute to improved health and well-being, patient care and support economic development; and to sharing knowledge, ideas and expertise in the delivery of health and social care services.

The conference organisers believe the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Basque region can be a model for closer co-operation between other UK and Spanish regions and they will produce a video to highlight how this approach tackles healthcare sustainability.

During the course of his speech Mr Poots told delegates that the key driver in tackling sustainability of Northern Ireland’s health and social care system was the reform process in Northern Ireland under Transforming Your Care.

He said: “We are setting up a new framework of care, and have identified a number of key principles which should underpin the reconfiguration of services. These include placing the individual at the centre of the care model, with more services made available in the community; better integration of services, with improved lines of communication across primary, secondary and tertiary care; and maximising the use of technology.”

In highlighting the use of technology across the Health and Social Care (HSC) system, Mr Poots said it offered an opportunity for co-operation in developing an international approach to patient record-keeping.

He said: “We have an opportunity to accelerate progress towards shared interoperable electronic health information and communication technology. I believe that Northern Ireland can make a significant contribution in this context to the development of an interoperable electronic health record, building on the implementation of our own electronic care record. This could potentially lead to the resolution of a long-standing international difficulty, but we are very much up for the challenge and are actively exploring options for taking it forward.”

For more information: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk