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The first session of the 75th Irish Cardiac Society Annual Scientific Meeting focused on the theme, ‘Collaborative care across borders – experiences, insights and opportunities’. It opened with an address by Mr Mike Nesbitt MLA, Minister of Health for Northern Ireland.
Minister Mike Nesbitt MLA
The Minister congratulated the Society on its 75th anniversary and commented: “Regardless of your political persuasion, it’s obvious that collaboration and working together with neighbours just makes sense. Since becoming Minister for Health for Northern Ireland, it has become even more clear to me that North-South collaboration should be encouraged and supported in healthcare for the mutual benefit of both populations, for the benefit of our patients, and the staff who deliver these great services.”
Minister Nesbitt said he had several conversations with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly in relation to areas where collaboration would be beneficial. “I believe that we are on the same page when it comes to working together where there’s an opportunity to do so, not least with regard to health inequalities, which is one of my passions.”
He referenced how cross-border co-operation had been successfully implemented in congenital cardiac services through the formal structures of the All-Island Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Network, which arose from necessity and political agreement. “But it was also built on clinical leadership, on vision and collaboration, and I’m pleased to see the CHD Network continuing to thrive today and planning for future challenges.”
Minister Nesbitt noted that in the context of world health, “this is a unique cross-jurisdictional model for healthcare. Over the past 10 years or so, thousands of babies, children, and young adults have benefitted from the service.”
He continued: “Health issues, viruses, diseases – they don’t recognise borders. Neither should learning, collaboration and professional support across our two health systems. It’s not something that I need to teach you, but I do encourage you to use [the conference] to celebrate what you have done through collaboration and to think about where you can go from here and take the opportunities to build for the future.”
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