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Tag Archives: health minister
Swann slams Poots over care homes “debacle”
Mr Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and Chairperson of the Stormont Employment and Learning Committee, has severely criticised Health Minister Edwin Poots over his “disastrous handling of the care homes debacle”, warning that the Minister could have avoided the unnecessary crisis. Assemblyman Swann, who is also North Antrim UUP Chairman and Party Chief Whip, was to the fore in the UUP campaign to retain services at care homes in the constituency. Mr Swann said: “The bitter medicine that the Health Minister Edwin Poots must swallow is that he ignored warnings received more than a year ago from the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland in relation to the proposed closure of care homes. “More than a year ago, on the 18 April 2012, Claire Keatinge, the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland handed a Briefing Note to the Health Minister at a … Continue reading
Swann presses Poots to save baby heart unit
Mr Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and Chairman of the Stormont Employment and Learning Committee, has pressed Health Minister Edwin Poots to give “a cast iron guarantee” that paediatric cardiac surgery will continue at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. Assemblyman Swann, who is also North Antrim UUP Chairman and Party Chief Whip, told Minister Poots he was declaring an interest, “as I have a three-month-old son currently awaiting cardiac surgery”. Mr Swann has been campaigning vigorously to overturn a decision to transfer such cardiac surgery to the Irish Republic. The North Antrim UUP added: “When the recommendation was made, Dr Reilly, the Minister for Health in the Irish Republic, seemed very well briefed. “How far on are the negotiations between his Department and the Minister’s about the potential of moving all the surgery to Dublin?” Minister Poots told Mr Swann: “There will … Continue reading
Swann challenges Trust on home closure plans
Mr Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and Chairman of the Stormont Employment and Learning Committee, has called for “clarity and certainty around the Northern Trust plans for residential home closures”. Assemblyman Swann is also North Antrim UUP Chairman and Party Chief Whip. He said: “The Transforming Your Care proposals promoted by the Health Minister clearly outline the direction of travel in terms of statutory residential home closures. “However, such proposals should always be accompanied by clearly identified alternatives which have been robustly consulted upon. “Clearly this decision by the Trust puts the cart before the horse and I call upon the Trust to outline the alternatives in terms of care packages and the number of new supported housing units being introduced. “This is so that people can have the confidence that these proposals are part of a thought through strategy rather than a knee … Continue reading
Swann calls for more surgeons
Mr Robin Swann, the North Antrim Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member and Chairman of the Stormont Employment and Learning Committee, has challenged Health Minister Edwin Poots to increase, not cut, the number of surgeons required for post operation surgeries. Mr Swann, who is also North Antrim UUP Chairman and Party Chief Whip, posed the question to the Minister at Stormont. Mr Swann also declared an interest as the parent of a five and a half-week-old son, Evan, who is currently awaiting heart surgery in Belfast. Assemblyman Swann added: “From my experience, the cardiac and paediatric surgeons and the anaesthetists in the Royal Victoria Hospital are of the highest professional and specialist standard, as I am sure the Minister will agree. “Does he also agree, however, that if he reduces the number of surgeries that are completed in the Royal it will become increasingly difficult to recruit to those posts, which … Continue reading
Posted in Press Releases
Tagged anaesthetists, Belfast, campaign, cardiac, Chairman, children, edwin poots, Employment and Learning Committee, health minister, heart surgery, Northern Ireland, paediatric, post operation, Robin Swann MLA, Royal Victoria Hospital, standard, surgeons, ulster unionist, UUP
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Arthritis ‘at crisis level’, warns Swann
Mr Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist North Antrim Assembly Member, has warned that specific funding needs to be given to the development of new drug treatments for arthritis as well as the provision of rehabilitation support services for sufferers. Assemblyman Swann, who is a member of the Stormont Culture and Agriculture Committees, warned if the health department did not follow this course of action, the illness could become the silent health crisis of the decade. Mr Swann said that after recent talks which he had had with arthritis support organisations and charities, he has been left in no doubt that arthritis in all its forms “is a major disease which affects a very significant proportion of people to some degree or other. In its most serious form, it is a major cause of absence from work and loss of employment. It can destroy the quality of life for many individuals … Continue reading
