‘Health and Wellbeing 2026: Delivering Together’ (2016) provides the blueprint for transforming health and social care services in Northern Ireland to better meet the needs of our population. A key commitment in the blueprint is to establish elective care centres to provide a dedicated resource for less complex planned surgery and other procedures. Evidence from elsewhere shows that such centres can reduce waiting times for planned care, and provide a better experience for both patients and staff. The current approach of delivering both planned and unplanned care using the same facilities and the same resources, means that waiting times can be adversely affected when the demand for urgent and emergency care is very high such as that experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This document sets out the Department of Health’s policy statement for establishing a regional service delivery model for daycase elective care procedures in Northern Ireland.
The Establishment of a Regional Service Delivery Model for Daycase Elective Care Procedures in Northern Ireland