AQW 42608/22-27
Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast
Tabled Date: 16/03/2026
Answered On Date: 21/04/2026
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health whether there is capacity across the Health and Social Care Trusts to deliver the Psychiatry of Old Age services in its entirety for the immediate future.
Answer:
The continued growth of the ageing population across Northern Ireland has led to increased demand for Psychiatry of Old Age (POA) services in recent years. This increasing demand presents us with the challenge of ensuring we continue to have the required expertise within our POA workforce to provide the required level of service provision. BHSCT I am aware of the recent challenges being experienced by BHSCT in delivering its POA service in its entirety. This has been due to the high level of vacancies in its consultant workforce. The Trust is operating with a number of locum consultant posts and to manage within a reduced capacity it has been necessary for the service to introduce a prioritisation of the current workload. Within POA Community services, the team are prioritising the urgent and emergency referrals. Whilst the team continue to respond to the routine referrals, there may be some delay in response times. GPs and other referring colleagues have been advised to continue to refer patients as per normal procedure and all referrals will be triaged. My Department acknowledges the current vulnerabilities within the BHSCT POA service and is working with the Trust to bring further stability to the service. NHSCT In the immediate term, NHSCT capacity to deliver the full range of POA related functions is stable but this stability is dependent upon workforce. Across Dementia diagnostic services most of the Psychiatry of Old Age Consultant input is currently provided by locum staff. SEHSCT SEHSCT Psychiatry of Old Age service is stable and workforce capacity is in line with the funded establishment. SHSCT The Southern Trust have experienced workforce pressures particularly in regard to recruitment to Consultant Psychiatry posts and have offered a recruitment and retention premium in order to fill vacancies. The Trust has reconfigured their Older Person’s Mental Health Service in recent years, with the aim of maximising efficiency and managing service demand. WHSCT WHSCT Psychiatry of Old Age service is stable and workforce capacity is in line with the funded establishment. However, similar to SHSCT, the Trust has had to offer the recruitment/retention premium in order to deliver the full Consultant Psychiatry service.
|