Coulter calls for more Community Care Packages
Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the North Antrim Ulster Unionist Assembly candidate, has called for the health department to release more individual community care packages for the constituency which would in turn ease the pressure on acute beds in both the Antrim Area and Causeway hospitals.
Rev Dr Coulter, who is also Ulster Unionist Health Spokesman and has served for several years on the Assembly’s Health Committee, said that ultimately one of the practical ways to tackle the waiting list crisis in the health service was to introduce more individual care in the community packages.
The North Antrim UUP candidate added: “More of these individual care packages are needed for North Antrim to relieve the pressure on acute beds in Antrim and the Causeway hospitals.
“The individual care packages work by assessing the specific needs which a patient would require after receiving their operation or treatment in an acute hospital. The care packages can be designed so that these needs are met by the person being cared for in their own home, or in a nearby nursing home. The cost would be paid for by the health service.
“Practically, it means that people can get back into their own communities and be cared for in those communities rather than occupying hospital beds over a number of weeks. By caring for people in the community itself, leads to much-needed acute hospital beds being made available for future patients, especially those on the waiting lists.
“I would call on the Health Minister to speed up the process of delivery of these individual packages to North Antrim, thereby reducing the waiting lists in the constituency. 2007 could well be ‘make or break’ year for our health service in realistically getting to grips with the spiralling waiting lists and the equally worrying situation of bed blocking.
“It is no use emptying millions of pounds into the health service if there is no specific direction for that funding. Cash must be clearly earmarked for certain sectors of the health service. Individual care packages also mean that relatives and friends can be nearby to visit their loved ones in the community rather than having to travel long distances in many cases to the acute hospitals.
“The health department needs to adopt the motto of ‘patients first’ in 2007 otherwise the waiting list and bed blocking crisis will reach such a peak that it will be totally irreversible.
“It is also equally essential that those now charged with governing our health service under Direct Rule do not create a situation which cannot be fixed when hopefully devolved powers are eventually returned to our Northern Ireland Assembly,” said Rev Dr Coulter.