Present: Dr J Hendron (Chairman)
Ms P Armitage
Mr P Berry
Mr T Gallagher(Deputy Chairman)
Ms C Hanna
Mr J Kelly
Mr A McFarland
Ms M McWilliams
Ms S Ramsey

Apologies: Rev. R Coulter
Mrs I Robinson

In Attendance: Mr G Martin Mr D Harkin
Mrs V Artt Mrs K McFerran
Mr J Ruane

Dr Hendron took the Chair at 2.05 pm.

In light of the recently highlighted crisis in orthopaedic/fracture surgery in Northern Ireland the Chairman has invited two senior orthopaedic surgeons from the RVH to Parliament Buildings on Tuesday, 10 October to provide an insight into the difficulties being experienced in delivering services on the ground. All members are welcome to attend.

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The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.

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1. The Chairman reported briefly on his visit to Muckamore Abbey Hospital on Thursday, 21 September where he met with the Chief Executive and officials of the North and West HSS Trust, and representatives of the Friends of Muckamore Abbey. He will provide a briefing note on the critical issues raised in relation to the proposals for the hospital for next week's Committee meeting.

2. The Clerk has obtained a copy of the Criminal Justice (Children) Order 1998.

3. The Clerk has obtained a detailed guidance paper on the Quality Protects initiative.

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Agreed: The Committee was content with the Department's proposal for a Statutory Rule - Health and Personal Social Services (Compensation for Premature Retirement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.

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Panel Members: The Minister, Ms Bairbre de Brún
Mr Clive Gowdy, Permanent Secretary
Mr Paul Simpson, Deputy Secretary
Mr Andrew Hamilton, Director of Finance

The Chairman welcomed the Minister and her Officials to the meeting at 2.35 pm. A summary of the Minister's rationale for the bids and the context in which they are made is outlined below. The question-and-answer session that followed the Minister's opening remarks is contained in Annex A to the minutes.

The Minister opened by welcoming the opportunity to meet with the Committee, and she expressed her strong desire to join with it in building a constructive and healthy relationship to facilitate tackling the many priorities within the health sector.

While acknowledging that the bids for £274m in addition to baseline figures are very substantial, the Minister emphasized that they must be considered in the context of serious under-investment in health and social services in Northern Ireland over a number of years and the poor health status of the population. This, she said, was a realistic assessment of the sums required to address the pressing needs within the Health Service . The Minister further added that some £85m of the bid is required simply to maintain existing services. The following areas of priority were highlighted:

• The Acute Sector: insufficient capacity to deal with winter pressures; waiting lists of 50,000; the need to radically improve cancer services; and inadequate care bed provision.

• Children Services: the need to provide for a substantial increase in the number of residential child care places and to meet the Department's statutory obligations under the Children (NI) Order 1995.

• Care of the Elderly: The need to tackle inadequate community care, which backs up into the hospital care, creating "bed blocking".

• The need to provide proper support to those who have severe learning disability or who suffer from mental illness.

• The Health Estate now has an estimated cost of backlog maintenance of some £170m.

• Northern Ireland's Health Status is amongst the worst in Europe and there is a need to develop a cross-departmental strategy with supporting resources.

The Minister concluded by emphasizing that this year's Programme for Government is an important first step in the process of developing a long-term strategy for health and personal social services. She reiterated, though, the need for significant additional resources to be progressively targeted to support the priority areas.

The Chairman thanked the Minister and her Officials for giving their frank and open views, and the panel left the meeting at 3.58 pm.

Mr Gallagher left the meeting at 4.00 pm.

1. Agreed: The Chairman will write to the Minister to express the Committee's concern that it is not always being advised contemporaneously of important Departmental issues. The most recent case in point is the consultation process on capitation formulae, full details of which he will request be made available to the Committee.

2. Agreed: The Chairman will raise the question of how Departmental budget proposals (including their level of detail) are presented before the Statutory Committees at the next meeting of the Chairpersons' Liaison Group.

Private Session

1. Agreed: The Committee agreed a fee for its researcher's paper on the Department's budget proposals. (Annex B)

2. Both the Health and Personal Social Services Bill and the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Bill will be referred to the Committee in October 2000. Time will need to be set aside for their consideration.

3. The synopses of the written submissions in response to the Inquiry into Residential Care and Secure Accommodation for Children will be issued with members' papers for next week's meeting.

4. Following a interchange between two members regarding reference made by a member to another Statutory Committee's draft report during the Committee's public session, the Chairman advised of the need to restrict discussions to the remit of the Committee.

5. Members are invited to a lunch at 1.00 pm with representatives of the BMA on Tuesday, 3 October in the Members' Dining Room.

6. The buffet lunch with the press is at 12.30 pm on Wednesday, 4 October in the Press Bar.

7. The Chairman reminded members of the need to ensure that mobile phones and pagers are turned off during Committee meetings as they cause interference with the recording systems.

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The next Committee meeting will be at 2.00 pm on Wednesday, 4 October 2000 in Room 135, Parliament Buildings.

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The meeting ended at 4.37 pm.

DR J HENDRON
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
September 2000

20 September 2000 / Menu / 4 October 2000