Future of Fertility Services in Northern Ireland (From People to Parents)

Future of Fertility Services in Northern Ireland (From People to Parents)

GP Appraisal Forms 1-6 Feb 06 (PDF 52 KB)

GP Appraisal Updated Forms 1-6 (February 2006)

Adopting The Future - The Biggest Overhaul For Adoption In Years (PDF 65 KB)

Health Minister Paul Goggins has unveiled the proposed new approach to adoption, in Northern Ireland which will put children’s needs at the heart of the process.

Cancer Services - Investing for the Future (The Campbell Report) (PDF 1958 KB)

Report published by the DHSSPS in May 1996. The Cancer Working Group, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer Henrietta Campbell, highlighted the need for changes to cancer services and made a number of key recommendations for the future development of these services.

Future Development of Clinical Genetic Services (PDF 284 KB)

Public Consultation on the Future Development of Clinical Genetic Services - Part I

A Healthier Future: A Twenty Year Vision for Health and Wellbeing in Northern Ireland 2005-2025

This Regional Strategy, A Healthier Future, aims to provide a vision of how our health and social services will develop and function over the next 20 years. In order to succeed, it must embrace the measures needed to promote health and wellbeing, support, protect and care for the most vulnerable and facilitate the delivery of services.

Regional Advisory Committee on Cancer - Report on Endocrine Cancer (September 2004) (PDF 144 KB)

There is already a good infrastructure for the management of endocrine cancer in Northern Ireland but to develop and strengthen it we recommend the following: • Increasing the already close cooperation between the individual parts of the service for endocrine cancer by use of shared protocols for assessment and follow up: • The main hub of management should remain at the RGH focussed on The Regional Centre for Endocrinology and Diabetes and the Endocrine Surgery department where there has been a long-term interest in the management of these patients. This includes a close working relationship between the endocrinologists and surgeon at the Belfast City Hospital. • This does not suggest that current developments of shared follow-up should not be encouraged. They should but with the provision of adequately resourced registers to allow adequate audit and to ensure adequate assessment of follow-up attendance. The issues regarding informed consent for such registers are currently being discussed for all forms of cancer. In the rarer conditions follow-up should remain central to allow adequate numbers and experience to maintain internationally recognisable outcomes and to allow training of future specialists to continue åÊ

A Better Future - 50 Years of Child Care in Northern Ireland

A Better Future - 50 Years of Child Care in Northern Ireland 1950 to 2000

Regional Advisory Committee on Cancer - Second Report 2002 (PDF 132 KB)

Regional Advisory Committee on Cancer (RACC) was established in 1997 to carry forward the recommendations of the Campbell Report of 1996 and to provide advice to the Department of Health and Social Services on the future development of cancer services. The Committee meets twice a year and its membership (Appendix I) is an indication of the wide range of interests involved in Cancer Care across the community. This report records some of the key developments in cancer services over the last 3 years. åÊ Significant progress has been made toward developing a high quality and integrated cancer care network. All five Cancer Units are now operational with chemotherapy and outpatient services for the most common forms of cancer are delivered from these locations. Agreement to the start of the new Cancer Centre, at the Belfast City Hospital, currently estimated to cost å£58m, is expected shortly. As a temporary expedient two additional therapy machines will be installed in Belvoir Park Hospital to increase capacity while the building of the new Cancer Centre proceeds. åÊ To deliver high quality cancer care the workforce needs to continue to expand. This requires increasing investment in the training of professional staff in the context of an already difficult HPSS labour market. The development of the five Cancer Units has increased staff mobility in the short-term, drawing skilled staff away from the centre who have been difficult to replace. At the same time increasing numbers of patients are being offered effective therapies at both the Cancer Units and the Centre. åÊ This report contains a review of selected developments in cancer care. The first section introduces the Memorandum of Understanding and the Tripartite Agreement between the National Cancer Institute of the USA and the Health Departments both North and South. This is a unique international partnership, which promises to bring very significant advantages to both the service and research communities across the Island. åÊ åÊ åÊ

Fit For The Future - Proposals (PDF 66KB)

This Government came to power committed to reforming and modernising the health and personal social services (HPSS) and returning them to their founding principles and core values. The momentous political change which has taken pl ace in Northern Ireland over the last year means that the new Assembly will now be taking up that challenge. This paper is not a blueprint. It signals the direction in which the Government wishes to move, but it will quite properly be for the Assembly to take final decisions on the way forward. There are many difficult issues to be addressed and change cannot happen overnight. That is the challenge which faces the Assembly and the HPSS. I wish them every success in meeting it. åÊ åÊ

Fit For The Future - Responses (PDF 114KB)

The publication of this report fulfils a commitment made by the Department of Health and Social Services to produce a summary of the responses which it received to the Fit for the Future consultation paper, which invited views on the future of the health and personal social services in Northern Ireland. The report has been prepared following a careful examination of all the responses received during the consultation exercise. It attempts to summarise the comments and åÊviews offered on the extensive range of issues which were raised in the consultation paper. Every effort has been made to ensure that this is an objective summary of the responses, without any further interpretation, colouring or qualification by the Department.

Delivering the Future (PDF 323KB)

Report of the High Risk Pregnancy Group

Cancer Services - A Position Paper for the Professions Allied to Medicine (PDF 175 KB)

A Position Paper for the Professions Allied to Medicine Patients with cancer are living longer due to early diagnosis and better treatment. In recent years there has been increasing attention to issues related to the quality of life of patients with cancer and a recognition of the potential for habilitation and rehabilitation. As a result, PAMs as members of the multi-disciplinary team are now more actively involved with patients diagnosed with cancer during all phases of their disease. Each person’s life possesses a unique blend of psychological, social, economic and physical factors and comprehensive care requires the needs of the whole person to be addressed. This requires patients and carers having timely access to the most appropriate range of professional skills that will allow individual patients and their carers to retain control of their lives and associated circumstances for as long as possible. It also requires professions, in all locations, to work in a collaborative patient centred manner that affords the best outcome for patients. The need has been highlighted for a multi-professional approach to the delivery of cancer services in “Investing for the Future” and “A Framework for the Multi-professional Contribution to Cancer Care in Northern Ireland”. This need has also been highlighted in the PAM Strategy document. åÊ