Review of Urgent and Emergency Care Services in Northern Ireland 2022

Overview

Urgent and emergency care services have been under significant, and increasing, pressure for at least the past decade, with the additional pressures of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.  A Review of the services has been in development since 2018 but with a necessary pause in the work as a result of the pandemic.

This work was re-established in autumn 2021 and the Department of Health (DoH) remains of the view that the Review Team Report (2018) continues to be relevant and that the strategic direction, as set out in the main consultation report, provides an appropriate response to the longstanding issues. This Review also continues the strategic direction set out in the No More Silos Action Plan and the Intermediate Care Project.

Co-production has been key to the work of the Review and this consultation report has been informed by input from over 1400 key stakeholders who have been involved through a range of co-production, involvement and engagement methodologies. Stakeholders include: service users; carers; clinical professionals; the third sector; and health and social care staff. Pre-consultation also played an important part in the development of the consultation report, testing the content with specific stakeholder groups who have an interest in and experience of urgent and emergency care services.

Why your views matter

The purpose of this stage of the Review is to set out and consult on a new approach to urgent and emergency care services across Northern Ireland. The ambition is to improve the service, and improve the service user experience, by ensuring greater accessibility to services and by making it easier to access the most appropriate service as quickly as possible. Access should be in a location most suited to the service user, without necessarily having to attend an Emergency Department. This builds on the experience gained in relation to new service models, through implementation of the No More Silos programme.

The changes outlined in the consultation report highlight the plans to protect access to emergency care, whilst providing alternative services/pathways for urgent but not life threatening conditions. This will have implications for service users. It is important that these are understood and these have been outlined in the main consultation report.

We have sought to consult and engage as broadly as possible during the Review and during pre-consulation engagement with a range of key stakeholders.  

This consultation aims to gather feedback on consultation report and all responses will contribute to future models of urgent and emergency care.

The consultation will run from 16 March 2022 until the 15 June 2022 and will include full Equality and Rural Needs Impact Assessments.

Ways to respond 

There will be a number of ways to help people to respond to the consultation.

Please note that respondents do not have to address every question within the consultation, and can instead focus on the questions or issues that are of particular interest. 

Stakeholders can respond to the consultation exercise using one of the following options:

• Via the online survey hosted on Citizen Space (which can be accessed using the link below);
• By completing the Consultation Questionnaire, which is available in the documents sections below.  The Questionnaire can be adapted and completed depending on which questions you wish to respond to, and submitted via email or in hard copy using the contact details listed below;
• By sending an email, or writing to the address listed below, with a summary of your feedback to the consultation.

In addition, as part of the consultation we will be running a series of virtual online events. Further details will be provided here when these are confirmed.  To pre register please email using the email address below.  

Email -

UECS@health-ni.gov.uk

Write to -

Department of Health

Regional Health Transformation Directorate

Annex 3

Castle Buildings

Stormont

Belfast 

BT4 3SQ

What happens next

Following the closing of the consultation, all responses and feedback will be collated for review by the Department of Health, and a consultation report will be produced.  Once the public consultation has concluded, proposals will be finalised and an investment and implementation plan will be developed for Ministerial consideration and will be published in due course.