A £102.6 million UK government funding commitment aims to help establish a new ePharmacy programme, as well as establish family support programmes.

The Northern Irish health ministry will receive a significant and welcome share of the new £102.6 million funding commitment from the UK government, as well as the National Lottery Community, in order to develop a new ePharmacy and family commitment programme. 

The transformation fund aims to help with the funding of six key public sector programmes for healthcare, special educational needs, justice and infrastructure. 

Of the commitment, £67 million comes directly from London. This budget was supported with £30 million from the National Lottery Community Fund, a commitment to the Together for Families project. This was added to by a £5.6 million pledge by the Shared Island Fund – a cross-border development fund – in order to provide funding for the bovine tuberculosis project. 

The new ePharmacy Primary Care Digital Reform Programme represents the largest share of the budget, at around £42 million. The project will eliminate the need for paper prescriptions by focusing on digital transfer of prescriptions from the prescriber, GP or out-of-hours community pharmacies. 

Overall, this aims to streamline the process for patients. “Transitioning from paper prescriptions to a digital system will genuinely transform [the] patient experience… [the project] will help to make health and social care as safe as possible,” said health minister Mike Nesbitt. 

The project is expected to improve services dramatically by replacing the manual processing of more than 45 million paper prescriptions a year with instant digital transfer.

Delivery of clinical services

In addition to the switch from paper to electronic prescriptions, the digital platform will assist in the delivery of clinical services to the public through community pharmacies, aiming to improve patient safety and expand access to care. While many welcome this initiative, large-scale digital reforms have historically faced difficulties in implementation, ranging from funding commitments to staff training. 

Together for Families is a partnership project between the Department of Health, as well as the Voluntary and Community sector, paid for by the development fund, as well as the National Lottery. 

It aims to establish a region-wide, tiered model of early help to ensure families can access the right help, at the right time and in the right place. Together for Families places an emphasis on earlier intervention, stronger family support and a cohesive working relationship between government sectors to provide meaningful and coordinated change. 

“This initiative is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the life chances of children and families across Northern Ireland,” said Nesbitt – noting the potential for the programme to deliver change through early intervention by the voluntary and community sector, strengthening the relationship needed to deliver proper support. 

“This investment is about helping children and families access support earlier, through trusted community organisations and effective partnerships across services,” added Kate Beggs, director of The National Lottery Community Fund Northern Ireland, responsible for half the funding commitment of the Together for Families programme.

Pressure on hospices

Further fiscal support within the Northern Irish healthcare sphere was seen with a £1.6 million investment into hospices in the form of an emergency funding package. Following growing financial pressures, five hospices across Northern Ireland will see a combined £1.6 million in short-term relief in palliative and end-of-life care. 

Though the funding is being seen as a welcome step in addressing the challenges the sector faces, many experts argue that a more concrete method of dealing with the growing pressures needs to be outlined to provide fair and sustainable funding to protect hospice care. 

“This funding will help alleviate some immediate pressures and support hospices to continue delivering these vital services… However, one-off funding alone cannot address the longer-term challenges facing hospice care,” said Hospice UK’s policy and public affairs manager Aileen Morton. 

For many, the success of the wider £102.6 million package will depend not only on new investment, but on whether it delivers lasting improvements to services across Northern Ireland.