Health and Social Care (Northern Ireland)

Publicly-funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland

Health and Social Care (Northern Ireland) is the healthcare system in Northern Ireland, It was set up in 1948 at the same time as the National Health Service in Great Britain, It is different because it covers social care as well as health care. There are no prescription charges as there are in England.[1]

There are five health and social care trusts. They run the hospitals, dentistry, pharmacies and social care. [2] They started on 1 April 2007.

The six trusts are:

  • Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
  • Northern Health and Social Care Trust
  • Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
  • South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
  • Southern Health and Social Care Trust
  • Western Health and Social Care Trust[3]

There are about 350 GP practices in Northern Ireland.

The service in Northern Ireland is much worse than in the rest of the UK because of the political problems in the Northern Ireland Assembly. [4]

References change

  1. "NI to scrap prescription charges". 2008-09-29. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  2. "Health and Social Care trusts | nidirect". www.nidirect.gov.uk. 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
  3. "Health and Social Care trusts | nidirect". www.nidirect.gov.uk. 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  4. "Senior medics write to Chris Heaton-Harris over NI health crisis". BBC News. 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-03-16.