Less than a year after nursing staff across the UK voiced fears about welfare because there was not enough staff to help patients feed themselves, it has emerged that almost two thirds of nurses in Northern Ireland have raised concerns about patient safety with their employers. New research published today has also indicated that in one of three of such cases, no subsequent action was taken by the hospitals’ management.

SOCIAL Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has promised there will be no job losses in Londonderry as part of a planned modernisation of the Social Security Agency.

More than one in 10 of Northern Ireland’s workforce is employed in the health and social care sector. Almost 78,000 people, including casual staff, are employed in health – making it NI’s single largest workforce.

Speaking in advance of Monday’s Assembly debate on plans to axe 722 nursing posts from Northern Ireland’s health service, Royal College of Nursing [RCN] Northern Ireland Director Mary Hinds has urged Assembly members to support any proposals to exempt or reduce the impact on the health service of the efficiency targets required under the Comprehensive Spending Review [CSR].

A proposal to close a psychiatric inpatient unit in south Belfast has been rejected by the health trust. It was suggested the Windsor House unit would close before a new facility was built. However, the trust said it will stay open until the new unit is ready.

The public body which runs Northern Ireland’s multi-million pound legal aid scheme has admitted that a three-month dispute with family barristers over pay could begin to affect care services for vulnerable children.

Children in residential care homes face a bleak future because of a culture of high risk behaviour and low expectations, according to new research by healthcare experts at the University of Ulster. The study found that children and teenagers living in residential care were more likely to drink alcohol, become sexually aware and attempt suicide than those living in foster homes.

RELIEVED staff and residents at Clonmore House in Rathcoole were celebrating this week after the Northern Health Trust shelved plans to replace their home.

The outgoing chairman of one of the now defunct Health and Social Services Councils is today calling for a return of matrons to hospital wards.

A new framework to regulate the safety and quality of health and social care services was published today by the Department of Health, ahead of the new Care Quality Commission coming into effect on 1 April 2009.