25/10/2016 BBC Newsline

The Health Minister has warned that services here are at breaking point

as she unveiled a ten-year plan to transform the system.

Michelle O'Neill says change is critical

to ensure services can cope with the growing demand.

She was responding to the findings of the Bengoa health review

Our health correspondent Marie Louise Connolly reports.

Matt is 88, and is about to have a procedure

which will improve the condition of his heart.

He has travelled around 50 miles to the

Royal Victoria Hospital to have it done.

I really do not mind travelling from Cookstown to Belfast

This procedure is only available in Belfast.

The team of experts is based in one place and

patients are expected to travel to them.

I think that is the pattern all across the western world.

They get the best treatment, patients...

And, fortunately, for that little bit

of inconvenience, they get better outcomes.

It is that idea of centralising certain services,

such as cancer and cardiology, that the Minister would like to see

happening across all the health trusts.

At the moment, expertise is being spread

too thinly across too many buildings and it all costs money.

The reality is that the current model is

If we continue to provide services in the same way,

using the same current models of care, demand projections show

that ten years from now the HSC will need

what does this ten-year plan mean for the public?

There will be a short-term plan with a significant

cash injection to address the current waiting list problem.

There is to be significant investment in

Also more GP training places, and more

advanced nurse practitioners in the community.

GPs are to have district nurses, health visitors and

social workers to help bring care back into the community.

While the report does not mention hospital closures,

it says services within the five health trusts

will have to meet certain criteria to prove they are viable.

That could be the potential sticking point, as some

hospitals may lose the services such as emergency departments

According to the man behind the plan, that will mean

That is one of the reasons why we did a

political format where we approved some principles and all parties

which means that hopefully the opposition would not

be using, because of the importance of this

change for the people in Northern Ireland,

will not be using Health and Social Care as

The Health Minister's trump card is having her

Side-by-side, both parties spoke with one voice.

We either try to manage the change

or we either manage the chaos that would come

if we did not tackle the huge issues that there are.

Problems of such magnitude cannot be fixed overnight.

At least today marks the start of trying to fix them.

Earlier, on BBC Newsline, I asked the Health Minister

how she was going to reduce waiting lists.

This is about delivering better hill fog outcomes for all of those people

who we are representing. Waiting lists are obviously an outcome of a

system that does not work, a challenged system that needs to be

transformed. In the short term, we need short-term investment, making

sure we are at full capacity within the hill fog service, but also going

to the independent sector to make sure those patients get seen in a

timely manner. That did not, I want to be but... Where you getting the

money for that? Through the Executive. What we have is achieve

additional funding but I am actively engaged in conversation with the

finance minister and made Executive colleagues and we will be announcing

in due course our budget. You see this as a good news story, and a lot

of people agree, but there will be a lot of people on these waiting

lists, 225,000 people waiting to see a consultant, who will have looked

to you for answers and they did not get any. I do not think that is

right. What the population got today is we are going to work seriously

and provide the political leadership necessary to transform hill fog and

Social Care Act. We cannot keep doing things the same and expecting

different outcomes. The waiting lists are unacceptable, we have to

do my -- we all agree, but if we do not transform they will get even

worse. A bigger role for the private sector? I have always said that I

will not leave patients waiting on waiting lists. If I can buy in the

service elsewhere in the short term, that is a short-term measure,

because I want to have a hill fog service free at the point of

delivery based on need and all provided in-house.

A meeting of Northern Ireland doctors this evening

gave a cautious welcome to the Minister's plans for the future

General practitioners have decided to freeze their threat to resign

in protest at lack of support and investment

Instead, they are waiting to see if today's announcement

by Minister Michelle O'Neill is followed up with action

That helped take the form of a multidisciplinary team, and we heard

that from the Minister today. She also talked about investment in

general practice, and that was a good thing. She also talked about an

increase in GP training numbers, and that is a good thing. So we have

heard from the minister today some hope. We are certainly looking at

the report and the minister's response and we think we are going

in the right direction, but we have heard this before. We need to see

action and implementation and we need to see investment in general

practice and in the primary care services for patients.

The former Ulster and Ireland rugby player David Tweed's

convictions for child sex abuse have been quashed.

He had been serving an eight-year prison sentence.

Dan Stanton reports from the Appeal Court in Belfast.

57-year-old David Tweed refused to answer questions after being

released from custody early this evening.

He was freed after senior judges at the Appeal Court quashed

The former councillor from Ballymena

hugged relatives after the verdict was given.

In 2012, a jury found him guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault,

and inciting gross indecency with a child.

The former rugby international had been serving

He was capped four times for Ireland,

and played more than 30 times for Ulster.

At the end of today's case, Lord Justice Gillen said that judges

would be giving the reasons in writing

for quashing his conviction soon.

A 21-year-old man who was using his mobile phone while driving has

Edward Devlin had been using an app on his phone to look at used cars

In a tragic turn of events, the pole then fell and fatally

injured a 66-year-old man who'd been standing nearby.

Devlin was jailed for 13 and half months.

Edward Devlin, seen here leaving an earlier court hearing, admitted

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind

Devlin had been using an app, Gumtree, on his mobile phone

It happened as Devlin was driving along this road

Ahead of him, a tank had parked up along the side of the road.

A car slowed down behind it, waiting to overtake.

It was a straight section of road and Devlin should have seen

the obstruction from 300 metres, but he did not.

The court heard his attention was distracted.

He was using an app on his mobile phone

When he did look up, it was too late.

Swerving to avoid crashing into the car in front,

he mounted a verge and struck a telegraph pole.

who was standing outside his house.

and died one month later in hospital.

Today, Craigavon Crown Court heard that Devlin

had two previous convictions for careless driving

and has previously been disqualified from driving

The judge also outlined the impact

that Mr Bailey's death had on his widow.

He said her life had been blighted by her loss.

Devlin was sentenced to 13 and a half months in prison.

He will spend the same amount of time on licence.

It seems low for somebody who has taken

Not just carelessness but dangerousness,

because it is dangerous to look at your mobile phone and it is

dangerous to look at it for that a sustained,

lengthy period and not be concentrating on driving,

which should be your primary focus at the time.

The judge said this case highlights the dangers of using

He said this is a particularly serious example,

because the defendant was using the Internet to surf online

He said that without mitigating factors, including the defendant's

young age, the fact that he had admitted the offence and the genuine

remorse that he had shown, he would be facing longer imprisoned.

The Justice Minister Claire Sugden has reversed plans to close

Courthouses in Armagh, Ballymena, Lisburn, Limavady, Magherafelt,

and Strabane were are all earmarked for closure

under plans announced by her predecessor David Ford.

Claire Sugden said it wouldn't be appropriate

to proceed with the proposed closures at this time.

A number of people have contacted me since I became a minister around

this particular issue, asking that I look at this again, not just on the

perspective of how this will affect justice in terms of the cord usage,

but also in the wider perspective. How this will affect town centres,

access to justice, a number of reasons. I was keen and I listened.

Carl Frampton's World featherweight title rematch against

former champion Leo Santa Cruz has been confirmed for Las Vegas on

Belfast man Frampton beat Santa Cruz in a thrilling bout in New York

in July to become the first Irish fighter

to win world titles at two weights.

Frampton said he's thrilled about the prospect of the Vegas bout

which will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Football, and in tonight's County Antrim Shield quarterfinals

Matthew Clarke was able to nip in front of the Cliftonville defence

five minutes before half time to score the opener,

Ryan Gaynor and Andrew Waterworth wrapped it up for the Blues

Also through to the semifinals are the PSNI and Crusaders.

On tomorrow's programme, we're in Newry, where retail

business is also enjoying a big uplift in southern shoppers.

Our business correspondent Julian O'Neill joins them

to discover just what kind of savings they're making.

With the details here's Angie Phillips.

Good evening. It is not going to be quite as cold tonight. The sky is

not as clear and that is because we have an approaching weather front

moving in from the north-west. An increasing breeze, increasing amount

of cloud and that of rain. Mainly light and patchy, working its way

eastwards, clearing later in the night. Because we have more cloud

and breeze, the temperatures are holding up. For tomorrow, we have a

legacy of quite a lot of cloud for a time anyway and we still have that

breeze. A lot of dry weather but there will still be a few showers,

particularly towards the north and west. Biased towards the south and

east. Tomorrow, basically a North, South split. Cloudy conditions,

strong winds running into Scotland and to a lesser extent of the

Northern half of Ireland. That band of showers breaking up as it makes

its way sites. Biased for the south of the Republic and mainly dry

across England and Wales, where we could see some pleasant spells of

sunshine. Light winds as well, so highs of 17 degrees. Also mild for

us tomorrow, for a time of year. Hopefully, in the afternoon, we will

see some brighter glimpses coming through the cloud from time to time.

But you have to be out of the breeze to benefit from it. Breezy around

parts of the course. Through the rest of the week, we are on the

periphery of high pressure so we get these weak weather fronts trundling

around the edge, and particularly into Friday we could get some rain

from that. Not an awful lot, no great mind, still a lot of dry

weather but a fair amount of cloud as well.