BAM 🔨 This week it was reported that 350 people were on trolleys in accident and emergency departments in Northern Ireland waiting for a hospital bed. Written by Jonathan Traynor. Recommended by Christopher Owens.
When one sees elderly patients waiting for 36 hours, when one sees staff in casualty juggling multiple patient conditions, when one sees ward staff desperately free up space it is clear that the health and care sector is broken.
The number of workers is below what it should be. The number of hospital beds is too low. As to the residential and nursing homes there are too few.
What this means is that Northern Ireland can no longer have a health and social care sector that caters for all of the population.
For decades it has been clear that there is an aging population. The demographics are clear, have been clear for all professionals and casual observers alike. It is almost right years since Professor Rafael Bengoa published the report Systems not Structures. The report pointed to a series of reforms and ways forward.
A quick glance at the Department of Health reporting on progress reveals that there are transformation boards, groups, conferences and such like.
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