Good morning John,
I received my booster jab earlier this week at the Ulster Hospital.
By getting your vaccination and your booster when eligible, you can ease the pressure on our hospitals.
The booster programme is the single most effective tool within our reach to combat the current wave. It could reduce hospitalisations by at least 15%.
Northern Ireland is behind the rest of the UK in rolling out the booster. We don’t say this to take a political jab, we do so to encourage more creativity and to ensure the vaccinations are accessible.
Our health service is stretched to the limit and our frontline heroes are overworked and underpaid. We must stop with the sticking plasters and for their sake, start the big long-term reforms to fix the hospitals.
Next week, I will have more discussions with those who have worked on the front line and want to see real change.
Domiciliary care is broken. We have been pressing the Department of Health to take action on this for several weeks. Under questioning from my colleague Diane Dodds MLA, the Health Minister has revealed there are almost three thousand people waiting on care packages across the five health trusts. This is incredible.
Three hundred beds per day are held up because of no care package being in place. That’s not sustainable.
We need more people working in domiciliary care, which means making the role more attractive with better terms and conditions.
I am grateful to all of you for support in delivering upon my vision for a health service fit for our new century and providing me with your ideas and how we can work together to turn around a service in crisis.
I am determined to be a driver of change and reform in the health service.
That model of collective effort and resolve must continue to be our template moving forward.
We all know the goal we wish to attain and recognise the steps we can take together to achieve it.
As Leader I will ensure my party plays its part in full and I encourage everyone to follow those simple, but important public health messages in the coming weeks, to ensure those brighter days we all want to see can be realised.
Yours sincerely,
