The group has been established to review the Northern Ireland-wide provision of services for those with acquired brain injuries and the protocols and care pathways by which patients can access those services.
It will be chaired by Richard Dixon, who has senior management experience in health and social care and in the voluntary sector as a director of a Northern Ireland charity for people with acquired brain injury.
The other members of the group will be Dr Jacinta Morgan and Professor Lindsay McLellan.
Welcoming the establishment of the group, the Minister said: “I remain committed to improving brain injury service provision across Northern Ireland.
“I am confident that the expert knowledge and experience of the members of this group will be invaluable in taking forward this important piece of work. I look forward to receiving the group’s findings and recommendations.”
The group will begin work in April 2008 and will report back to the Minister in the autumn.
Notes to Editors:
1. During an Adjournment debate in the Assembly on 20 November 2007, regarding the referral of patients from Daisy Hill Hospital to the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit, the Minister announced a review of the Northern Ireland-wide provision of services for those with brain injuries and of the protocols and care pathways by which patients can access those services.
2. Richard Dixon has senior management experience in health and social care and in the voluntary sector as director of a Northern Ireland charity for people with acquired brain injury. At present, he is the Chief Officer of the Eastern Health and Social Services Council, an independent body with responsibility for representing the views of patients and the public on services in the eastern area of Northern Ireland.
3. Professor Lindsay McLellan was appointed as senior lecturer and consultant neurologist at the University of Southampton in 1977 and held the Europe Chair of Rehabilitation from 1984 until retirement in 2000. He has undertaken research and published extensively in the field of neurological disability and rehabilitation and has a particular interest in traumatic head injury and its rehabilitation. He was also an advisor to the Welsh Affairs committee and the Health Select committee of the House of Commons in their reviews of head injury services in Wales and England. He is a member of the European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine and continues to undertake regular clinical work at the Peartree House Rehabilitation Centre in Southampton.
4. Dr Jacinta Morgan commenced work as a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at the National Rehabilitation Hospital and Beaumont Hospital, Dublin in February 2007, after working at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Cornwall, UK since 1998 as a Consultant in Stroke and Rehabilitation Medicine. During that time, she was instrumental in developing a county-wide stroke service and enhancing services for patients after a traumatic brain injury, through the medium of collaborative reviews with Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Social Services, and clinical colleagues in Devon. In 2003/4, she led a review of inpatient neurorehabilitation services in the South West Peninsula.
Terms of Reference for the Review
- To review the nature, capacity and effectiveness of the services currently provided in Northern Ireland for the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of people of all ages and genders who have suffered an acquired traumatic brain injury.
- To consider provision in the context of equality and human rights legislation
- To take into account good practice from the National Service Framework on Long Term Conditions
- The review will draw on guidelines from professional bodies, consider examples of good practice and make recommendations on how traumatic brain injury services should be organised and provided to achieve the optimum outcomes for patients
- The services provided to people who present with a brain injury at the acute stage will not be reviewed as part of this work. However, the review will be informed by and will take into account the Department’s Stroke Strategy and Review of Trauma Services when it examines the patient journey in full.
The outputs expected from the review are:
- Regular feedback to the Department as the review progresses;
- A mapping of current provision and an identification of gaps including any age or gender specific gaps;
- A mapping of the patient journey and referral pathways;
- Recommendations in response to the Terms of Reference.
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