A year marked by pay disputes, scandals, and progress in assisted dying, Northern Ireland's health service grapples with numerous challenges.
A pay dispute led to industrial action by healthcare workers. People, pay, politics and a sprinkling of positivity best sum up Northern Ireland's 2024 health and social care story.
Powerful stories were plentiful - who can forget the personal testimonies during the UK Covid-19 Inquiry when it sat in Belfast, and the scandal around cervical screening which revealed many women and their families had been failed? Hospital waiting lists reached a milestone, with more than half a million now on a list to have their first consultation with a specialist. Among the scandals and apologies, the year also saw significant developments at Westminster and in the Republic of Ireland around assisted dying.As always, it has been full-on as most services worked tilt to the hilt with dedicated staff keeping things afloat in Northern Ireland for years. Tens of thousands from 16 unions downed tools over pay - and what was a fragile start to the year ended on a more stable note with Patients' stories have driven the news agenda, especially from inside public inquiries, including Muckamore and Urology.A damning report into the infected blood scandal found the infection of 30,000 people with HIV and hepatitis between 1970 and 1991 could have been 'largely avoided'.Local faces were among the thousands who gathered to hear inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff conclude that doctors' bodies, the NHS, and governments had 'repeatedly' failed victims. There were apologies from the Belfast Health Trust and the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS). Conan McIlwrath from County Antrim said there was a lot more beyond the report's words - after all 'you don't use the word failure 190 times for nothing'.of multiple failings across several NI Executive departments. We learned that 'political dysfunction' hampered the roll-out and compliance of some Covid-19 policies, which counsel to the inquiry said had a 'direct impact on cases and fatalities
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRIALACTION SCANDALS ASSISTEDDYING POLITICS
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