Belfast Trust is committed to fully involving our staff, service users, local communities and the wider public in the planning and development of services. One of the ways we do this is through consulting the public about our services and plans.
We publish our current consultations and how you can get involved here.
Consultation on the proposed future of GP Out of Hours provision in Belfast Trust area
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is committed to ensuring our General Practice Out of Hours (GP OOH) services are of the highest possible quality and are effective and compassionate.
We want to ensure that service users, and families, staff and the public at large have an opportunity to consider and comment on the proposed reorganisation of GP Out of Hours services.
Belfast Trust is responsible for the provision of GP Out of Hours services for the population of Belfast. Over recent years, there have been challenges in maintaining out of hours service provision at the two bases on the Crumlin Road and the Knockbreda Health and Wellbeing site.
We have already engaged with and explained what changes we are proposing to modernise the service and address the challenges that it faces. This includes the rationale for introducing a multi-disciplinary service with nurses, paramedics and pharmacists – so that the service is no longer reliant on one single profession and to free up GPs to attend to those who are more acutely unwell.
In order to make the best use of public monies, we consider it would be more cost-effective and more efficient to provide the service from one base, alongside the relatively newly established Phone First service. Moving to one site with the newly introduced skill mix would make considerable economies of scale by consolidating resources and would address the significant, increasing overspend that the service is facing year on year.
Evidence has shown that the current model is no longer sustainable and frequently, unfortunately we have had to close one site due to workforce issues.
Belfast Trust is now launching a consultation on these proposed changes. The consultation will run for a period of 13 weeks, closing on Thursday 2 January 2025.
We would encourage as many people as possible to have their say in this consultation. You can find full details, including the consultation paper on the Citizen Space website:
We thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your feedback and look forward to your comments.
If you would like to find out further information, please contact orla.barron@belfasttrust.hscni.net.
Consultation on a new Involvement and Consultation Scheme for HSC Trusts
The Public Health Agency, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts are seeking your views on a new Involvement and Consultation Scheme Document.
Involvement of and consultation with service users and carers is critical in the commissioning, development, design and delivery of Health and Social Care services. To comply with our statutory duties in regards to Involvement and Consultation, as set out in the Health and social Care Reform Act (NI) 2009, Belfast Trust must have a Consultation Scheme in place, which sets out how they meet their statutory responsibilities in this field.
Working together through the Regional Health and Social Care Personal and Public Involvement Forum, service users, carers, experts and advocates in the fields of Involvement and Consultation and other Health and Social Care partners, have collaborated on the development of a common, generic template, in order to update our respective Schemes.
In adopting this approach, our new Schemes, will encourage a raising of standards and can aid us to deliver an improved consistency of approach to the active and meaningful involvement of service users, carers, and effective partnership working with our Community & Voluntary sector partners and the wider public.
We thank you in advance for taking the time to give us your feedback on the Involvement and Consultation Scheme and look forward to your comments.
This consultation will run for a period of 12 weeks, closing on Monday 11 November 2024.
Health and Social Care NI (HSCNI) Involvement and Consultation Scheme – NI Direct – Citizen Space
If you would like to find out more information, please contact ppi.secretary@hscni.net.
You can search for current and previous consultations on the Citizen Space website.
As well as always encouraging our stakeholders to get involved in Belfast Trust consultations we also wish to encourage you to view and get involved in Department of Health consultations. You can find information about current and previous consultations on the Department of Health website.
The Department of Health is committed to working with stakeholders and those with an interest in its work and engages with a wide range of representative groups and individuals to obtain views which contribute to formulating policy and making decisions.