Date revealed:
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has welcomed extra funding of over £100 million to determine an ePharmacy programme and a brand new challenge to offer stronger assist and earlier intervention for youngsters and households in want of assist.
Both initiatives have obtained funding by way of the Public Service Transformation Bid as follows:
- £42 million for ePharmacy and;
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£29.2 million for Together for Families.
The National Lottery Community Fund has additionally dedicated an extra £30 million to the Together for Families challenge – its first strategic funding of this sort in Northern Ireland.
The ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme will ship an digital prescription switch programme, that means paper prescriptions will probably be a factor of the previous. Prescriptions will probably be digitally transferred from the prescriber, GPs or Out of Hours to neighborhood pharmacies, streamlining the method for sufferers.
In addition, a brand new digital platform will handle the supply of medical companies to the general public by way of neighborhood pharmacies, enhancing affected person security, increasing entry to look after sufferers and bringing therapy nearer to folks’s properties.
Together for Families is a brand new transformational mannequin of supporting kids and households that marks a decisive shift in direction of earlier intervention, stronger household assist and extra joined up working to make sure households can entry the precise assist, on the proper time and in the precise place.
The mannequin, which has whole-system assist, was developed in shut collaboration between the statutory, neighborhood and voluntary sectors and supplies a framework to drive change in a coordinated and constant manner.
On the ePharmacy challenge, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt stated:
“With over 45 million items prescribed and dispended annually across Primary Care in Northern Ireland, transitioning from paper prescriptions to a digital system will genuinely transform patient experience. This project and the new digital platform will help to make Health and Social Care as safe as possible, accelerate primary care reform and help support our move towards a Neighbourhood model of care for primary, community and social care.”
On Together for Families, Minister Nesbitt added:
“This initiative is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the life chances of children and families across Northern Ireland. It reflects a shared determination to work differently, bringing partners together across the system with a clear focus on delivering better outcomes for children and families and the delivery of support in a way which is seamless, trauma-informed, non-judgmental and, above all, compassionate.
“I want to express my sincere thanks for the support provided by the National Lottery Community Fund, which has committed half of the funding required for implementation. That is a significant vote of confidence in both the ambition of Together for Families and the power of partnership between the statutory, community and voluntary sectors to deliver meaningful change.”
Kate Beggs, The National Lottery Community Fund Northern Ireland Director, added:
“Across Northern Ireland, many households are going through rising pressures, from monetary hardship and youngster poverty, to rising psychological well being wants.
“Too usually assist solely reaches households as soon as challenges have reached disaster level. At its coronary heart, this funding is about serving to kids and households entry assist earlier, by way of trusted neighborhood organisations and efficient partnerships throughout companies. The voluntary and neighborhood sector performs an important position on this, bringing deep native information and powerful relationships that assist households get the assist they want.”
Notes to editors:
- Pictured are L-R Fionnuala Walsh, Head of Funding UK Portfolio, The National Lottery Community Fund, Jacinta Linden, Co-Director of Together for Families, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt, Paul Sweeney, Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee, The National Lottery Community Fund and Peter Toogood, Deputy Secretary, Social Care and Public Health Policy Group.
- Pictured are L-R Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer DoH, Jacinta Linden, Co-Director of Together for Families, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt, Paul Sweeney, Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee, The National Lottery Community Fund and Peter Toogood, Deputy Secretary, Social Care and Public Health Policy Group DoH.
- The full announcement of Transformation funding from Finance Minister John O’Dowd for Northern Ireland Departments could be learn right here https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/news/odowd-announces-ps1026-million-transformation-projects
- The Together for Families initiative is an outworking of the Family Support Workstream of the Children’s Social Care Services Reform Programme which is made up of leaders from throughout statutory and voluntary kids’s social care who’re working in partnership to ship change. Engagement with HSC Trusts has been a key a part of ongoing work to finalise the design of the mannequin in preparation for implementation.
- Primary care Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) secured £61 million of Public Sector Transformation Funding within the first tranche, which has enabled over 1.1 million sufferers in Northern Ireland to have entry to a wider vary of assist in GP Practices. More sufferers are receiving assist reminiscent of physiotherapy, psychological well being assist or pharmacy recommendation, nearer to their properties, usually with out having to see their GP first or ready for a hospital appointment. This challenge has helped to scale back demand for secondary care companies, with over 70% of sufferers presenting being managed in a major care setting.
- Separate to the ePharmacy and Together for Families initiatives, £16m of Transformation funding has been supplied for the Department for Communities’ Pathway to Work and Wellbeing proposal. This funding will ship a redesigned Health and Work mannequin in partnership with the Department of Health and the Department for the Economy, providing stronger integration between employability and well being companies to assist extra folks, together with these with ailing well being and disabilities, to search out and maintain employment.
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