Tag Archives: East Antrim MLA

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A Sinn Féin MLA has said that the ‘fear and distress’ caused by the care homes ‘fiasco’ in the North last week ’must not be repeated’. Sue Ramsey was speaking following a difficult week for the Stormont Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Edwin Poots and the Health Trusts over The Transforming Your Care plan and the proposals to close statutory residential care homes. The Transforming Your Care consultation ran over a 14 week period from 9 October 2012 to 15 January 2013. On 19 March 2013, the Minister for Health announced that as part of the plan to bring care back to people’s own homes, that at least 50% of statutory residential care homes would close. DUP Stormont Health Minister, Edwin Poots said ‘No-one can disagree with the policy that home is the hub of care. But how we achieve this, needs to be carefully planned and communicated, to those … Continue reading →

7 May 2013 Last updated at 12:31 ET Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Edwin Poots said it was “unacceptable” that families had been upset by the plans The health minister has apologised “unreservedly” at Stormont for stress felt by residents of care homes earmarked for closure. Edwin Poots also said it was “unacceptable” that families had been upset by the plans. It was announced over the last two weeks that 18 National Health Service (NHS) care homes would close, affecting 307 residents. Some elderly people felt they had not been properly consulted. In a U-turn on Friday, the minister told health trusts to drop their care homes policy and said closures would be handled by the Health and Social Care Board instead. “What happened last week fell way short of standards,” Mr Poots told the Northern Ireland Assembly. “I apologise unreservedly. The threat of any residential … Continue reading →

Edwin Poots BY ANNA MAGUIRE – 07 May 2013 The Health Minister is coming under pressure to scrap recommendations to move children’s heart surgery out of Belfast. Parents fear that lives could be lost if a children’s heart surgery service is based a 100 miles away in Dublin. The UUP has proposed a motion to be debated at Stormont this week on the proposals to move the services. The party’s health spokesman Roy Beggs jnr said: “It’s like any medical emergency, there are better outcomes with early intervention. Delays in carrying out procedures can result in adverse outcomes affecting children.” The mooted closure of the life-saving surgery facility moved a step further last month, after the Health and Social Care Board recommended a shift south of the border. Last year a UK-wide report said that centres must perform a minimum of 400 children’s surgical procedures each year. Around 110 heart … Continue reading →

The health minister has been forced to implement a dramatic U-turn on plans by his health trusts to close all their elderly residential care homes. The Southern, Northern and Western Health Trusts all unveiled proposals over the past eight days to close 100 per cent of their residential homes, the minister having previously said his plan was to close only 50 per cent. It is understood that 339 elderly residents in 26 homes across five trusts would eventually have been at risk of losing their homes. However, a public backlash together with scenes on television of distressed pensioners – and open revolt against the policy from the minister’s own grassroots colleagues – all combined until he was forced yesterday into announcing he was scrapping the trusts’ proposals and instead starting a fresh review of the closures under centralised control. He said: “This is about listening to our older people and … Continue reading →