Articles

Roy Questions Minister and Officials on Care Homes at Stormont Health Committee

Posted on May 15, 2013 by rbeggs

The Stormont Committee on Health, Social Services and Public Safety received a briefing from Health Minister Edwin Poots and senior officials including John Compton- Chair of the Health and Social Care Board on “Residential Homes — Proposed Closures”. Ulster Unionist Party MLA Roy Beggs asked the following questions: Mr Beggs: I want to talk about this issue of being surprised at the speed at which the trusts wish to close residential care homes. Given that four or five years earlier some of the trusts wanted to close all the homes, why did it surprise you that some of them wanted to go to the max of their capability in TYC? Mr Compton: We thought that because we had process that had worked locally in the South Eastern and Belfast Trust areas, where we closed homes that tended to be very local and have a very local debate about the particular … Continue reading →

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Positive New Rail figures Prove Previous Discrimination Against East Antrim Commuters

Posted on May 10, 2013 by rbeggs

Ulster Unionist MLA Roy Beggs Jnr has said that the recent upsurge in passenger numbers on the East Antrim rail network (Larne Line) highlights that delaying the deployment of new train sets when Sinn Fein and the DUP were in charge of public transport in the Department for Regional Development up to 2011 was a disgrace. Mr Beggs said: “Recent figures released in response to questions I have asked at Stormont are encouraging. Over the past year the Larne line has seen a bigger percentage increase in passenger numbers 12%- than the 3 other major suburban rail routes in Northern Ireland. Undoubtedly that is related to the introduction last year of 20 brand new state of the art trains on the service. It is still early days but I would be confident that trend will continue this year and next. In fact I have been encouraging Translink to introduce more … Continue reading →

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Ulster Unionist Party Response to Transforming Your Care Consultation. January 2013

Posted on April 26, 2013 by rbeggs

15 January 2013 TYC Programme Team Health and Social Care Board 12-22 Linenhall Street Belfast BT2 8BS tycconsultation@hsci.net Dear Sir/ Madam, Reference:  Transforming your Care: Vision to Action’ consultation Further to the questionnaire attached to the ‘Transforming your Care: Vision to Action’ consultation document.  Due to the restrictive nature of the format, I as a MLA for East Antrim and spokesman on health matters for the Ulster Unionist Party would make the following addition comments. Firstly with regards to the nature of the Transforming Your Care consultation process: The current consultation period which ends on 15th January is at the end of a very complicated process which began in December 2011 with the publication of the 213 page Compton Report- Transforming Your Care, a Review of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.  This led to the individual Health and Social Care Trusts publishing in June of 2012 draft population … Continue reading →

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Roys speaks on Health Committee Report

Posted on February 19, 2013 by rbeggs

Speaking in a debate at Stormont, Roy Beggs MLA has endorsed a Report on Health inequalitiites just published by the Committee on Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Roy said: “ I am pleased to support the motion highlighting the Committee’s review of health inequalities. When we reviewed the Statistics and Research Agency’s figures, it was clear that there were huge variations in life expectancy. The average female life expectancy in Northern Ireland is 80·5 years, but, in the 20% most deprived areas, it moves down to 77·9 years. For a male from one of the 20% most deprived areas, it is 71·5 years. Those are quite dramatic variations in life expectancy, and, with that, there is associated illness. A range of factors are thought to contribute to that, such as an increased risk of mortality because of drugs, alcohol and smoking and an increased risk of suicide. There is also … Continue reading →

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Speech on Health and Social Care in East Antrim

Posted on October 5, 2012 by rbeggs

Adjourment debate, Stormont 2/10/12 Mr Beggs: I am pleased to have secured this Adjournment debate on health and social care in East Antrim. The reason that I wanted to secure it can be summed up in one word: equality. Are my East Antrim constituents getting equal treatment when it comes to accessing health and social care provision? I am concerned that many are not. I will set out the context for the debate. The last time that we debated an East Antrim-specific health topic in the Assembly was February 2008. At that time, the context was a consultation document that the Northern Health and Social Services Board had issued on replacing services in Inver House in Larne. This time, the context is the ‘Transforming Your Care’ report, also known as the Compton report, which was published last December. I will speak on some of its implications later. I will also … Continue reading →

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